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A STUDY OF 

EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS 
IN MEXICO 

AND AN APPEAL FOR AN 
INDEPENDENT COLLEGE 






A STUDY OF 

EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS 

IN MEXICO 

AND AN APPEAL FOR AN 
INDEPENDENT COLLEGE 




CINCINNATI, OHIO 

PUBLISHED FOR THE COMMITTEE 

1916 



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.6g 



Copyright, 1916, by 

The Committee for the Study of Educational 

Conditions in Mexico 



V 


©CI,A455045 


DEC 28 1916 


1^' : ^ 



COMMITTEE 

FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATIONAL 

CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 



Norman Bridge 

Los Angeles, California 

Frank J. Goodnow 

Baltimore, Maryland 

David Starr Jordan 

Palo Alto, California 

Harry Pratt Judson 

Chicago, Illinois 

Henry C. King 

Oberlin, Ohio 

Samuel C. Mitchell 

Newark, Delaware 

John Bassett Moore 

New York City 

Arthur W. Page 

Long Island, New York 

Theodore H. Price 

New York City 

Leo S. Rowe 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

George B. Winton 

Nashville, Tennessee 

Charles William Dabney, Chairman 
Cincinnati, Ohio 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 
Foreword 5 

I. Racial Setting 7 

II. The Colonial Period 17 

III. Period of Political Liberation 24 

IV. Conditions at Beginning of Independence 27 

V. Education Under the Republic 32 

VI. Developments from 1821 to 1867 40 

VII. Later Phases — School Organization 61 

VIII. Additional Topics 86 

Afterword 91 



FOREWORD 

IT is fair to say that everyone wants to help Mexico, but 
that no one at present knows how to do it. We can not 
expect to help her effectually until we first understand her 
history and institutions, her people and their aspirations. 
What, then, does the history of Mexico teach us? What is 
the meaning of the series of revolutions which have been going 
on in that country for the last hundred years? In other 
words, what have the Mexicans accomplished, and what do 
they now want? These revolutions, including this last long one, 
have all, at bottom, been phases of a blind, misguided struggle 
of a strong, ignorant people for liberty. They have sprung 
from a desire of the common people to realize the benefits of 
democracy. They have been a struggle against a feudal 
system approaching slavery. They were chiefly, although 
not entirely, the strivings of an oppressed people to win for 
themselves and their children a small place upon the soil of 
their native land. 

These blind efforts have failed of their ends largely because 
the people have been without learning and without true leaders. 
There has never been a middle class in Mexico to supply 
leaders for the people in their struggles with the feudal lords. 
Organized public opinion is the only basis for democratic 
government, and this has never existed in Mexico. The only 
newspapers are controlled by the Government, by the land- 
lords, or by the big corporations. There are no real political 
parties. The only politics are wholly personal, and the only 
political organizations are gangs formed to advance the interests 
of leaders whose names they bear. There are no political 
campaigns to educate the voters, but only processions and 
rallies intended to impress them. There is, in fact, no free 
political discussion of any kind. Elections in Mexico, con- 
sequently, are either farces or frauds. 

Organized public opinion and the free discussion of political 
affairs so necessary to free government can not exist where the 



masses of the people are ignorant. The only solution of the 
Mexican problem, therefore, will be the establishment of 
public schools which will educate the people to know their 
rights, and of colleges to train men to help them in their strug- 
gles to win those rights. 

In the belief that the best thing the friends of Mexico can 
do at the present time is to prepare to assist her in educating 
her people, a Committee was formed a year ago for the purpose 
of studying the educational conditions and needs of the country. 
The following paper was prepared under the direction of this 
Committee by Dr. George B. Winton (now of Vanderbilt Uni- 
versity, but for thirty years a teacher in Mexico), with some 
assistance from Professor Andres Osuna, formerly superin- 
tendent of schools of Coahuila and at present general director 
of primary, normal, and preparatory education in the Federal 
District of Mexico. Several of the notes were contributed by 
Professor Ezequiel A. Chavez, formerly President of the 
National University of Mexico and Assistant Secretary of the 
Department of Public Instruction. We are indebted to 
Professor I. J. Cox, of the University of Cincinnati, for revising 
the material thus collected and contributing additional matter. * 
For those who can not read the whole paper at once, the 
chapter summaries and "Afterword" will, we hope, prove 
helpful in giving a general view of the educational conditions 
in Mexico and our recommendations for their improvement. 

CHARLES WILLIAM DABNEY, Chairman. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, December 1, 1916. 



♦Notes contributed by Professor Chavez are signed "E. A. C"; those by Professor Cox, 
"I. J. C." 



I — RACIAL SETTING 

Summary 

Conditions in Mexico cannot be understood without a study of ethnology. 
The Nahua peoples— Toltecs, Chichimecs, and Aztecs— came from the north 
by the west, and displaced an earlier race, perhaps the Mayas. The Nahua 
records were destroyed by the Spaniards; but we suppose their origin to 
have been Asiatic. They are oriental in type of mind and in physique. 
The Aztecs were the leaders for only a century or two. As a warlike tribe 
they developed a system of bloody religious rites. It was not really typical, 
as Mexicans are not sanguinary in their tastes. The line between "nobles" 
and "plebeians" was the most noteworthy social phase of native life. Agri- 
culture flourished. The Conquest introduced new racial influences and 
two new classes, mestizos and Creoles. The Spanish settlers took possession 
of people and lands. Education was left to the Church. Doubt was 
entertained at first whether the Indian could be educated. There was no 
attempt at education by the Government. The Spanish Crown and the 
superior authorities in the Church made provision for the protection of the 
Indians. These measures were brought to naught by the avarice of the 
colonists. Repartimientos and encomiendas were intended for the good of 
the natives, but resulted only in their oppression and the enrichment of 
the colonists. 

ANY study of educational conditions in Mexico must 
take account of the racial history of the Mexican 
people. Not only is that history v^ithout a parallel, 
but there is no phase of the people's life that does not throw 
the student back upon the extraordinary intermingling of 
race currents at and before the Conquest, and the influence 
which those cun-ents have exerted upon each other and upon 
the mass during the succeeding centuries. The ideals and 
practices for the training of the young, which have prevailed 
during the six centuries of Mexico's recorded history, have 
been the outgrowth of the social, military, and governmental 
standards existing first among the native tribes, and later 
modified by the coming of the Spaniards. A rapid review of 
these racial elements and tendencies will serve, therefore, to give 
the setting for our examination of the present educational status. 
The Nahua peoples, who displaced an earlier stock — believed 
by many to be represented now by the Mayas of Yucatan and 

7 



Central America — had been in possession of the Mexican 
plateau, according to their own records and estimates, some 
six or seven centuries before the coming of the Europeans. 
They had themselves arrived in three successive migrations, 
or had, at least, been dominated by three successive groups or 
tribes — the Toltecs, the Chichimecs, and the Aztecs. The 
Aztecs were in power at the time of the Conquest. Vigorous 
tribes of cognate stock lay just outside the sphere of their 
control — the Tarascos, the Huastecs, the Mixtecs, the Zapotecs, 
and others.* 

On this question of oriental origin a word or two may be 
ventured. While the elaborate theories and speculations 
which have been a favorite diversion of students of Mexican 
history are in the main far from convincing, one must allow 
that there is much in the way of justifiable inference pointing 
to an Asiatic origin for these peoples. The physical 
resemblance which is still marked and detailed, is re-enforced 
by mental and spiritual traits suggesting, let us say, a kinship 
between the Mexicans and the people of Japan or of China, 
rather than with any race of Europe, f It is scarcely too much 
to say, indeed, that one outstanding phase of Mexico's long and 
tragic history, has been the inability of the European mind to 
sound the distinctively oriental processes of Mexican thinking. 
To this day there is an ever-present menace of tragedy in the 
forced contact of the American people, intellectual heirs as 
they are of Northern Europe, with the Mexicans, whose 
aboriginal orientalism was but slightly tinctured by contact 
with Spain, and that at a time when Spain herself had for 
centuries been sitting at the feet of Arab schoolmasters. The 
writer of these lines is beset by daily reminders, spread before 
us in the pages of American periodicals, of the inability of 
Americans to understand Mexico and the Mexicans. It is 



♦The statement that Toltecs, Chichimecs, Aztecs, Tarascos, Huastecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, 
and others were tribes of cognate stock is, perhaps, questionable. Distinguished scholars 
have reached the conclusion that the term "Chichimecs" was a word used only for characterizing 
a cultural stage. — E. A. C. 

tThe Japanese and Chinese are very dissimilar peoples, considered ethnically, so this kin- 
ship can be suggested merely for comparative purposes. There is absolutely no evidence of 
any direct connection between either the Chinese or Japanese and the Mexicans. It must 
be noticed, besides, that there are in Mexico many ethnical groups of different Indians, and 
that to this day the mental traits of all of them are a subject only of literary discussion, not of 
scientific definition. — E. A. C. 



so grotesque that it is comic, yet behind the mask of Comus 
grins still the threat of tragedy. 

The Mexicans resemble physically the Japanese. They 
have the small feet and hands, the long bodies, the wide faces 
and prominent cheek bones, which mark the people of Nippon. 
Along with these physical resemblances may be traced moral 
likenesses. There is in the two people the same astounding 
indifference to death; in both may be found the same mixture 
of gloomy fatalism and childlike good cheer, the same easy 
complaisance coupled with invincible obstinacy, the same 
subtle unanimity in their mental processes, invisible and 
incomprehensible to the onlooker, the same estheticism and 
warm-heartedness linked with childish ferocity, the same 
unbending and deathless loyalty. The question is often asked 
whether the Mexicans are not "very treacherous." The 
suggestion is ridiculous. They are almost criminally loyal. 

The hegemony of the Aztecs was a matter of two or three 
centuries, more or less, preceding the advent of the Spaniards. 
They had forced themselves to the front by sheer fighting 
ability. Once a weary and dilapidated tribe, they had found 
refuge on a rocky island of the salt and marshy lake of Texcoco, 
where for a time they eked out a scanty subsistence by fishing, 
hunting, and marauding. When later their numbers had 
increased, and they had grown skilled in arms, they overthrew 
the pacific agriculturists round about them and came to 
dominate the whole beautiful valley. Their warlike life begat 
a bloody religion, and the worship of Huitzilopochtli, God of 
War, culminated in human sacrifices — of captives only, at 
first — and cannibalism. This, though a recent and localized 
development, impressed itself so on the European invaders 
that it has ever since colored the conception of the Mexican 
national character entertained throughout the world. The 
fact is that the great mass of the Mexican peoples were neither 
warlike nor bloody-minded, and their religions were agricultural 
and pastoral in type, far removed from the sanguinary cult 
of the Aztecs. Indeed, the very fact that the Mexicans in 
general were farmers and artisans rather than warriors accounts 
for the sudden rise to power of the Aztec tribe. Some similar 
phenomena must be the explanation of the hastily abandoned 



granaries, houses, and irrigated fields throughout Arizona and 
New Mexico. 

As is usual in such cases, the Aztec conquerors absorbed 
much of the culture of the peoples whom they dominated. 
They learned the art of stonework and woodwork, of archi- 
tecture and city planning. They received the benefits of the 
expert farming already developed by their predecessors, the 
planting and cultivation of corn, beans, potatoes, etc., and 
the reduction of grains to food; also those of the weaving of 
cotton and other fibers into cloth, of skilled labor in gold, 
silver, and copper, of fine arts in feather-work and hieroglyphic 
writing. All these, there is reason to believe, originated before 
the time of the Aztecs* of Tenochtitlan, though naturally the 
Spanish invaders attributed all that they discovered to the 
people whom they found in power. 

This, then, is the situation which faces us at the beginning 
of our definite knowledge of Mexico. On a high, healthful, 
and fertile plateau, in the heart of which is a beautiful basin or 
valley, adorned with jeweled lakes and watched over by sentinel 
mountains, two of them capped with perpetual snow, has been 
gathered a group of tribes, henceforth to be known (through 
mistaken geography) as "Indians." They are in the early 
stages of civilization, beginning to cultivate the soil, to build 
villages of the communal type and to organize governments. 
Divided into jurisdictions that were primarily tribes, they are 
yet with a few exceptions racially homogeneous. Their 
several languages are nevertheless distinct from each other, 
and their separate governments of varying form. They are in 
a chronic state of antagonism and jealousy among themselves, 
which often breaks into warfare. Together they make a 
population variously estimated at from two to four millions. 

Although the tribes differed largely among themselves in 
the matter of social standards and customs, they were all 
pervaded by one or two aspects of community life. Of these 
the most important was the line drawn between nobles and 



*It is doubtful whether the aborigines of Mexico are racially homogeneous. The physical 
type of the oldest of the tribes, the Otomies, is totally different from that of the Yaquis, the 
Zapotecs, and the Mayas. Moreover, the linguistic differences are considerable. The language 
of the Otomies is monosyllabic; that of the other tribes was in the agglutinative period, yet 
passing into the period of inflexion. — E. A. C. 

10 



people. Despite the frequent descriptions and expositions of 
this social system in which the writings of the chroniclers 
abound, it is difficult now to trace the conceptions out of which 
it had grown. It appears to have been a fairly normal case of 
feudalism, that state of society likely to supervene during the 
transition of any people from warlike maraudings to settled 
agriculture and mechanic arts. The war chiefs come to the 
front through skill in fighting. Their followers in battle 
remain loyal when the fighting ceases. If they begin to desire 
lands and villages and strongholds, the chief and his vassals 
aid each other to secure them. Within a generation or two 
there is developed an hereditary chieftainship. Then there 
remains but a step to the permanent distinction between 
noble and serf. 

Some process like this has evidently taken place in Mexico. 
The event discloses that there was no real foundation for the 
distinction. The caciques were in no essential point superior 
to or even different from the macehuales. Yet since the dis- 
crimination was quite in line with what the Spaniards were 
used to at home, they accepted it as vital and final, and it 
exercised a far-reaching influence on social institutions long 
after the Conquest. 

As one result of the work of early missionaries among the 
people of Mexico, a considerable group of native scholars and 
writers grew up. These men, masters at once of their own and 
the Spanish language, took great pride in expounding the 
institutions, customs, history, and glories of their people. 
With them collaborated not a few of the missionaries, men who 
had come to understand something of the significance of the 
native culture, and even to have some measure of tolerance for 
the native religion. They admitted, at least, that many of the 
acts of worship belonging to it were of themselves innocent, 
and they allowed their converts to bring with them into the 
Christian temples the garlands and dances and music with 
which those converts had once honored the gods that had been 
displaced. It is interesting to observe that these native 
scholars were quite as apt to represent plebeian blood as noble 
blood, despite the fact that never, to this day, in Mexico, have 

11 



the sons of the common people had equal opportunity with 
those who were looked upon as of better birth.* 

No phenomenon of the social history of Mexico so constantly 
impresses itself upon the student's attention as this discrimina- 
tion against the lowly born. Yet nothing is plainer than that 
there is no physical or moral or intellectual factor in the life 
of the people themselves that justifies it. It was, nevertheless, 
both before and after the advent of the Spanish, a stubborn 
fact — often a bitter and an unhappy one. It has left traces 
in the national character and raised barriers in the national 
life that have not disappeared to this day. How it affected 
educational undertakings will appear later. 

Following the Conquest there were social developments 
quite as significant in their future influence as was the political 
change from autonomy among the native Mexican tribes to 
government by representatives of the Spanish Crown. For 
almost a generation after the final victory of Hernando Cortez 
in 1521 there was no immigration of Spaniards except soldiers 
and friars. Nothing was more natural than that the soldiers 
should form alliances with the Mexican women. These were 
largely women of the plebeian class, and the majority of such 
unions were irregular. At once there was thus added to the 
existing population a new element, the mestizos, or mixed- 
bloods, children of Spanish fathers and Indian mothers. With- 
in another generation, when Mexico became a field for invest- 
ment in mines, plantations, and stock ranches, instead of 
simply the arena for the exploits of soldiers or the diligence 
of missionaries, there commenced a more orderly immigration. 
Spanish citizens arrived, bringing their families. They came, 
usually armed with concessions granted by the Crown, prepared 
to take over native lands and mines, and with them native 
miners and farmers. The children that were born of these 
Spanish parents added still another clearly defined strain to 
the population, the Creoles (criollos). (In English usage this 
word is often wrongly taken to mean the same as mestizo. 
It means American born, of European parentage.) 

♦The records of Mexico from the time of the political independence do contain, to be sure, 
names of Indians of pure blood who rose from obscurity to high positions as ministers, generals, 
professors, deputies, and even presidents of the Republic. Among the best known of these 
names are those of Juarez, Mejia, Mendoza, Altamirano, and very recently Huerta. — E. A. C. 

12 



Such was the Mexican population at the beginning of modern 
Mexican history. Consisting originally of various related 
tribes, made up of nobles and plebeians, it had injected into 
it the Spanish conquistadores and their successors, the non- 
descript mestizos, and the proud Creoles. The Spanish invaders 
themselves were of various classes, but the opportunities of 
the New World were so many, and its fields of exploitation so 
wide, that all those who showed any aptitude, whether for 
politics or business, were able soon to place themselves in posi- 
tions of advantage. The distinction between noble and serf is 
everywhere but skin deep, at best, and is easily rubbed out 
when circumstances are against it. The Spanish soldiers were 
mostly illiterate peasants. In their contact with the proud 
and disciplined Indian chieftains they often appeared at a 
disadvantage. Yet by the power of arms and later of wealth 
they soon came to be the aristocracy of the New World. 

Of interest to our purpose is the attitude toward these 
various strata of early Mexican society assumed by two groups 
of the Spaniards, the governing class and the teachers. The 
alliance between the government then existing in Spain and 
the authorities of the Catholic Church was a very close one. 
By common consent the work of educating the new subjects 
was left to the representatives of the Church. One historian 
says very bluntly that this was inevitable, since none of the 
other Spanish immigrants were capable of teaching them 
letters. This is rather severe, but that the soldiers were 
mostly illiterate is not open to doubt. The same writer 
(Icazbalceta) adds that the income of the Government was not 
sufficient to enable it to establish a system of public schools. 
On this point his accuracy is less self-evident.* The speed 
with which the governing class enriched themselves would 
indicate that the country did not lack in productiveness. 
The Crown revenues, however, suffered from a defective system 
of taxation. From the very beginning a head tax had been 
laid upon the Indians. The Spanish colonists managed usually 



*If a system of public schools was not established by the Spanish Crown, the fact must be 
explained by other reasons than those here suggested. "The primary or elementary school," 
says Butler, "springing as it does from needs and ideas that are comparatively modern . . . 
seems but a creature of yesterday." Properly speaking we can say that only during the 
nineteenth century has education "definitely become a state function." — E. A. C. 

13 



to evade such taxation, even after they had become land-owners 
and exploiters of the wealth of the country. It was still the 
Indian — the poor man — who carried the load; nor is this 
condition of things yet properly remedied, Senor Ezequiel 
Chavez, quoting the study of Don Pablo Macedo on the 
evolution of Mexican finance, makes the statement that the 
annual income of New Spain, during the latter period of 
Spanish control, reached $20,000,000. At least two-fifths 
of this, probably a half, was sent to Spain. 

In the matter of colonial administration there was remark- 
able unanimity between the political and ecclesiastical author- 
ities in Spain. The Crown usually accepted the suggestions 
of the Church in regard to the treatment of the native peoples 
of the New World. The authorities of the Church, however, 
from the Pope down, while moved by benevolence and a 
sincere philanthropy, were often so far afield in their under- 
standing of conditions among the Indians that their disposi- 
tions are a queer jumble of beneficent and disastrous provisions. 
The spiritual status of the low-class Indian was often solemnly 
discussed. Soldier and missionary alike doubted whether he 
was, properly speaking, a soul, a rational being. This doubt 
persisted so long that it crystallized into a phrase. Spaniards, 
Creoles, Indian caciques, and most mestizos were spoken of as 
gente de razon (rational beings), a class from which indigenas — 
just plain Indians — were by inference excluded. This sixteenth 
century psychology has in it a touch of humor, but the scholars 
of that day took it in all seriousness. It certainly was serious 
enough for the Indian, for it affected, as we shall see, the 
provisions that were made for his education, and the system 
of education thus early introduced affected the whole sub- 
sequent history of the nation.* 

While in home affairs there was usually harmony between 
the political and ecclesiastical powers, friction often arose 
between their American representatives in the application of 
orders from Spain. The secular Spaniard, whether an office- 
holder or a soldier, although usually a devout Catholic and 
desirous of Christian converts, was primarily interested in the 



♦The somewhat exceptional abih'ty of many Indians for learning was, however, clearly 
recognized from the very beginning of the Colonial period by such acute observers as Fray 
Geronimo Mendieta. — E. A. C. 

14 



search for gold. The resources of Mexico (New Spain, it was 
called) were so fabulous, and riches often came with such ease 
and suddenness, that men became drunk with greed. This 
avarice astonished the Indians, and was at times the occasion 
of sarcastic comment. The plans of the Government, advised 
by the Church authorities, looked primarily to the Christianiz- 
ing of the native peoples of Mexico. But in the hands of the 
colonial administrators and settlers, these plans were often 
distorted to serve the most selfish interests. If the royal orders 
were that the lands should be divided among those who had 
merited well of the Crown, the native people were seized along 
with the land, and made to work for the new "owner" in 
virtual slavery. Thus repartimientos were abused, and the 
system had to be abandoned. If a large land-owner had 
"commended" to him a certain number of Indians, that he 
might civilize and Christianize them, he promptly enslaved 
the whole lot, binding them as serfs to his land and preventing 
them from leaving as long as they were in debt. Thus the 
encomiendas were abused. More than one effort was made to 
abolish the system. Enlightened missionaries thundered 
against it. Even viceroys condemned it; and from time to 
time royal decrees were launched against it. But it was most 
profitable to the colonists. Many of them were far in the 
interior. Not seldom the monks themselves were brought to 
think well of the situation. Were not the Indians submissive? 
Had they not all received baptism? What could be safer for 
them than humbly to take the secular as well as the religious 
orders of their superiors? As for working, that was also good 
for their souls. Left to themselves they would loaf and 
gamble and fight. 

So the encomiendas persisted — in fact, if not in name. The 
lot of the subjected masses was not called slavery. Men and 
women were not bought and sold — at least not usually. But 
they belonged body and soul to the men from over the sea. 
They were helpless. Their paternal lands had been taken 
from them, and they had become serfs, if not chattels. Their 
weakness made resistance of any kind impossible. Their very 
language faded out, except in secret discourse, and their tribal 
organizations disappeared; and in all the fertile and desirable 

15 



sections of their country they settled down to three hundred 
years of ignorance and peonage. Some results of this system 
our further studies will disclose, * 

♦The condition that succeeded the encomiendas may be termed a very bad form of servitude 
de la gUbe, yet it was better than actual slavery. But there are too many differences in the 
character of individual landlords and in the physical conditions of different areas to make an 
accurate designation possible. Considerate proprietors maintained their haciendas under a 
mild paternal regime, side by side with those of a more abusive type. Among such benevolent 
owners we may mention the renowned Don Melchor Ocampo, late of the state of Michoacan, 
and Don Olegario Molina, of Yucatdn. The benefactions of the latter, according to a con- 
temporary, should be commemorated by a public monument. There are many others of like 
character. Moreover, in some few localities — Xochimilco, tor instance — the Indians retained 
individual land holdings. — ^E. A. C. 



16 



II — THE COLONIAL PERIOD 

Summary 

The early mission work was done by monastic orders, and was educa- 
tional. They debated how much to teach the Indian. The missions were 
at first attractive and useful establishments. The mestizos increased the 
number of the lower class, especially in cities. Schools were established to 
meet the needs of various classes. A university was provided as early as 
1551. The Jesuits came in 1572, and soon engaged in educational work. 
Various institutions followed. 

THE work of education in the new world was given over, 
as pointed out above, to the Church. In Mexico this 
meant the monastic orders first, chiefly the Franciscans, 
the Dominicans, and the Augustinians; later came the Jesuits. 
The missions established among the Indians by the monks of 
the sixteenth century were largely established for teaching. 
Nothing else, indeed, was possible. These people needed to 
learn everything. Some of them were, in their way, not bad 
farmers. But the coming of the Europeans had introduced 
farming implements, domestic animals, fruits, vegetables, and 
grains not before known, about which the Indian had to be 
informed. Most important of all, he needed to be taught 
Christian doctrine. He did not need a great deal of this, to 
be sure, to induce him to accept baptism. That seemed to 
him a rite innocent enough — a good deal like some of those 
employed by his own religion. Just what mental reservations 
he might entertain did not greatly concern the average simple- 
minded monk. He believed in the efficacy of baptism, ex 
opere operato, and had no doubt that a soul was redeemed for 
heaven each time that he administered the rite. 

Just how much of letters should be taught in these mission 
schools was a subject of prolonged study and sober discussion. 
The issues involved were of this sort: Can the Indian with 
his limited intelligence understand letters? (Facts based on 
experience soon put this question out of court, though at first 
it was given great weight.) Again: Of what use will a knowl- 
edge of letters be to him? will it not endanger his soul by 

17 



teaching him to think and thus to be less submissive in matters 
of doctrine? will it not make him dissatisfied with his lot, and 
less desirable as a laborer? This question the land-owners 
and mine masters urged with an insistence that is perfectly- 
intelligible. Further, why should the common Indian wish 
to read unless he was to pursue his studies in higher schools? 
That, of course, was out of the question. He could not be 
allowed to study theology, for its mysteries were not for such 
as he. If he learned jurisprudence, it would certainly give 
him grounds for dissatisfaction with his social and economic 
status. As for philosophy, it was inconceivable that people 
so new to the ways of thought could penetrate the mysteries 
of that recondite subject. Moreover, since there were no 
periodicals and few books, why should people wish to read, 
anyhow? 

Such questionings, first suggested — it must in all candor 
be admitted— by some of the leaders of the Church itself, and 
naturally taken up and urged by the majority of the Spanish 
colonists, served greatly to cool the zeal of the Franciscan and 
Dominican missionaries. From the beginning they generally 
had not believed it worth while to teach girls, and in dealing 
with the Indians had shown a marked preference for the sons 
of the nobles. Such primitive institutions as they had built 
up gradually disintegrated under these attacks. The missions 
ceased to be centers of teaching, and gradually came to be 
settlements of indolent monks. These lived off the labor of 
the Indians in the fields which were an appurtenance to the 
establishment, said masses, baptized babies, married the 
young people, buried the dead, and otherwise went through 
the routine of official duties, but almost completely aban- 
doned their teaching function. This process was hastened and 
finally consummated when at length the administration of 
these missions — most of which had now become an asset and 
not a liability — passed by pontifical order from the monks to 
the secular priests. 

Of the idyllic character of many of these missions, and of 
the unflagging zeal of not a few of the monks, there is ample 
evidence. The boys of the community were gathered into 
the schoolrooms and taught the rudiments of letters, along 

18 



with the "Christian doctrine," which always had the prime 
emphasis. In the eariy mornings and late afternoons, before 
or after their work in the fields, the men came to the 'patio, or 
open court, of the school, and also received their instruction. 
This was even more rudimentary. To the same open-air 
school came the girls, who were not thought to require anything 
more than teaching in religion, morals, and household arts. 
In rare cases provision was made for boarding and lodging 
students — boys, of course. Mostly, however, the schools held 
only day sessions. As the Indians were accustomed to gather 
in settlements about these mission stations, which always 
occupied eligible and well-watered sites, there was usually no 
lack of students for the monks who felt moved to teach. These 
same Indians, under the supervision of the farmer-monks, 
labored to construct churches, monasteries, granaries, store- 
houses and fort-like inclosures, and cultivated widely extended 
glebes. The Indians were attached to their spiritual leaders 
and teachers, and gave freely of their time and labor. Neither 
parents nor pupils, however, could be impressed with the need 
of systematic daily attendance upon the schools. Such 
regularity did not comport with Indian temperament or habits. 

In Mexico City and other centers of population the educa- 
tional problem early became a pressing one. It was in such 
centers that extremes of poverty and wealth tended to show 
themselves. Even before the coming of the Spaniards Mexico 
had its rabble. The utter demoralization of the social organism 
which the Conquest induced greatly increased the number of 
this proletariat. To it were added in a very few years the 
greater part of the despised and abandoned offspring of the 
Spanish soldier and the wretched Indian woman. Many 
Spaniards even, caught in the meshes of native vice, and 
especially beguiled by the native drinks, sank to the level of 
this motley and hopeless throng. Within fifteen years after 
the occupation of the Government by the Spaniards, the 
condition and numbers of this lower class were such, upon the 
inauguration of the vice-regal system, as to cause grave concern 
to the first viceroy, and to the early bishops of the new diocese. 
Their representations, and other reports of the situation of 
the poor mestizos, resulted finally in the issue of a royal edict 

19 



in the year 1553 for the opening of an institution of learning 
for the special benefit of the youths of this class. This was 
the "college" of San Juan de Letran.* In it were taught 
reading, writing, and Christian doctrine. It received a small 
income from the royal treasury, and had a charter direct from 
the Crown. One of the objects of this foundation, as stated 
in its constitution, was that the young men educated there 
might become teachers in other schools. It seems thus to 
have been the forerunner of all normal schools in the New 
World. In Tlaltelolco, a suburb of Mexico, the Franciscans 
had already founded a school for Indian boys in 1536, 
twelve years after the arrival of the first missionaries. The 
course there was somewhat more extended than in most of 
them, for to reading, writing, and Christian doctrine were 
added grammar, Latin, rhetoric, philosophy, music, and 
medicine. (Arithmetic is not mentioned by the authority 
here consulted — Icazbalceta.) One singular outcome of this 
short-lived educational enterprise was the fact that Indian 
boys educated there came to be the teachers and spiritual 
guides of Creoles and even of Spaniards. (In the social scale 
of the time the order of precedence was Spaniard, creole, 
Indian, mestizo.) In 1544, after twenty years of work by the 
missionaries. Bishop Zumarraga, in seeking to secure the 
translation into the language of the Indians of a certain book 
of doctrine, gave as his reason that "there were so many of 
them that could read." Considering that these early mis- 
sionaries had first to master the native language and then 
reduce it to writing, it is no small tribute to their zeal and 
ability that within the space of twenty years they had pro- 
duced among the Indians a generation of readers. 

Among the ecclesiastics who came to Mexico during the 
first century of Spanish rule were many university men. As 
the wealth and social status of the colony advanced, these men 
were the leaders in agitating for the establishment of an 
institution of learning of high grade. The colonists them- 
selves — whose wealth had rapidly increased, and whose sons, 
if they secured an education, had either to go to Spain, or send 
there for private tutors — joined in the demand. In 1551, there- 



*Cf. Alamdn, Historia de Mexico, I, 18, note. — I. J. C. 

20 



fore, a royal cedula was issued ordering the foundation of a 
"college of all sciences," and in 1553, two years later, the 
University was formally inaugurated. This was, as will have 
been noted, the year of the opening of the college of San Juan 
de Letran. The Dominicans had been the leaders in urging 
the establishment of the University, and its administration was 
at the beginning entrusted to them. Meantime, a lay brother 
of the Franciscans, Pedro de Gante, had built up a huge primary 
school for poor boys alongside the monastery of his order in 
Mexico City.* A convent school for girls grew up later as 
the result, also, of his efforts to do something for the sisters 
of his multitude of boys. 

There were a good many other primary schools, all of the 
same general type, which came into being alongside the various 
monastic establishments of the different orders. The devotion 
of wealthy Creoles and Spanish colonists often placed in the 
hands of the orders valuable properties in real estate and 
vested funds, and the groups of friars multiplied, both within 
and without the centers of population. Teachers imported 
from Spain and those who began to be trained in the native 
institutions came in time to establish a goodly number of 
private schools of various types. The Government, however, 
did practically nothing. Even when it occasionally founded a 
school it at once turned the administration of it over to the 
monks; the natural result being that the institution soon 
differed in no wise from the openly ecclesiastical type. The 
pious sentiments expressed from time to time by the Spanish 
Crown do not atone for the complete abandonment of all 
responsibility for the education of the Mexican people. How- 
ever firmly the kings of Spain might have held the idea that all 
education should be in the hands of the Church, there could 
at least be no justification for withholding the financial assist- 
ance that might have made the Church efficient. That was 
before the day of government lay schools, and the theory was 
almost universally accepted that the training of the young 
should be left wholly to ecclesiastics, in order to guarantee 



*He was the pioneer of education in New Spain, if not in tlie whole New World. In 1522 
he founded the first school in Texcoco, and afterwards that of San Francisco in Mexico City. 
In Michoacan, just in the first decades of the Spanish Conquest, education was successfully 
started by Bishop Vasco de Quiroga, the founder of the Colegio de San Nicolas. — E. A. C. 

21 



that it should be religious. How was it possible for the Govern- 
ment to escape the thought that the people of Mexico were 
entitled to have some proportion of the enormous sums wrung 
from them in taxation used in the training of their own sons 
and daughters? This question still remains a mystery. 

Later in the sixteenth century (1572) came the Jesuits to 
Mexico. Throughout its history and in all the wide geo- 
graphic range of its activities this order has been identified 
with the work of education. Its beginnings in Mexico were 
humble, however, and the expressed intentions of the first 
representatives were to devote themselves primarily to preach- 
ing. But they early secured a hold among the well-to-do of 
the colonists, who began to urge them to assume responsibility 
for the education of the sons of the colonists. In spite of this, 
the first educational enterprise of the order in Mexico was for 
the benefit of poor boys. This was the foundation of the college 
of Santa Maria de Todos los Santos, in 1573, carrying an 
endowment of ten free scholarships with board and lodging. 
It was made possible by a donation offered by Dr. Francisco 
Rodriguez Santos, who at first wished to enter this order and 
donate to it all his property, but was persuaded by the father 
superior, Pedro Sanchez, to found instead this college.* 

The same Jesuit father superior, Pedro Sanchez, preached 
a sermon in favor of the establishment of a theological seminary, 
and so stirred the laymen who heard him that a group of them 
formed a board and got together an endowment for such an 
institution. Thus the Seminary of San Pedro y San Pablo was 
founded, at the end of the same year, 1573. A little later the 
Augustinians founded the College of San Pablo; and there began 
to be no little competition in undertakings of this kind. Pro- 
vincial seminaries for the training of Indian youths to be 
missionaries had already been established in different parts of 
the country. One of these, after suffering numerous vicissi- 
tudes, still survives in the Colegio de San Nicolas, now a state 
school, at Morelia, State of Michoac^n, apparently the oldest 



♦It should be observed that the word "college" is used loosely here as the translation of 
the corresponding Spanish temn. This term does not describe such an institution as in 
modern English is connoted by the word. In the period under review the institutions so 
called were usually barely above the grade of primary schools, the best of them hardly 
reaching that of the modern high school. — I. J. C. 

22 



school with a continuous history in Mexico, and one of the 
oldest on the American continent. Its chief claim to fame, 
outside this fact of its antiquity, is that it was the alma mater 
of Father Hidalgo, the Liberator of Mexico. He was also for 
a time rector of the institution.* 



*For a brief summary of a few sporadic efforts to establish a school system in a Spanish 
frontier villa or town, cf. article by I. J. Cox on "Educational Efforts in San Fernando de 
Bexar," (now San Antonio, Texas), in Quarterly of the Texas Historical Association, July, 
1902, VI, 27-63. As shown there (pp. 27-35) some little educational leaven was beginning to 
work among the Creole and mestizo classes during the last thirty years of Spanish rule. This 
was, of course, pitifully weak and inconsequential, but its presence should at least be noted. 

It is only fair to add that for a small element of the population, composed almost exclusively 
of high-class Creoles, there were cultural advantages of no mean character at the close of the 
vice-regal period. Public functions at the capital and in other important centers were marked 
by contests in poetry and oratory. Some of the productions of these contests received recogni- 
tion in Europe. The Inquisition was active in suppressing what it regarded as objectionable 
books, but the book-trade in certain publications was flourishing. In the last decade of the 
eighteenth century a creditable edition of Livy was printed in Mexico City and sold by sub- 
scription, and there were other instances of classical authors finding a market in New Spain. 
Large and well-selected private libraries were reported in the capital and elsewhere. Mexico 
City boasted of an Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1803 dedicated an equestrian statue of Carlos 
IV that still arouses artistic enthusiasm. At this same period there was considerable writing 
of local history. After 1784 periodicals like the Gaceta de Mexico, the Diario de Mexico, and 
the Diario de Vera Cruz began to publish general as well as governmental and commercial 
news. In spite of rigorous censorship they exerted a beneficial effect on public opinion and 
indicated an encouraging amount of general culture among the higher classes. Possibly this 
manifestation was largely due to the enlightened policy of Carlos III and his subordinates, and 
much of it disappeared during the succeeding political disturbances; but it must be confessed 
that the cultural opportunities in Mexico City, on the eve of the struggle for independence, 
compare favorably with those of any Am.erican city at the outbreak of the Revolution. — 
I. J. C. 

23 



Ill — PERIOD OF POLITICAL LIBERATION 
Summary 

The educational plans of colonial days were inadequate. Political 
movements for freedom were belated in Latin America. The Napoleonic 
intervention in Spain gave colonists their opportunity. The revolution 
was a movement of the plebeian class. The first plan was to set up a 
"Catholic monarchy" in Mexico, out of reach of Napoleon. Failing this, 
change was made to republicanism, in emulation of the United States. 

SUCH, in rough outline, were the educational provisions 
with which Spain set out to do her duty by her namesake 
in the New World. Our purpose does not demand that 
we should trace through the three hundred years of the vice- 
regal period the vicissitudes of these educational institutions, 
the shifting ideals which animated those in control of them, 
and the varying fortunes of the whole cause of education, as 
between Church and State, between Crown and colony, 
hidalgo and Creole. It will suffice to pass at once to a view of 
Mexico as that country emerged from the somnolence of 
colonial days into the stir and bustle of the century of independ- 
ence. 

Mexico attained her political freedom, along with most 
other Spanish and Portuguese colonies, in the early years of 
the nineteenth century. This general movement in Latin 
America resulted from the gradual working of the republican 
leaven, liberated into the world's thought by the successful 
dash for independence of the English colonies in America and 
later by the vast upheaval of the French Revolution. That 
Latin America (as we have of late come to describe it) was thus 
fifty years behind the British colonies is an index of the slower 
rate at which public sentiment is formed and propagated 
among those peoples than among such as possess a free press 
and show a high percentage of literacy. The democratic and 
leveling effects of the Protestant religion, as compared with the 
emphasis on obedience and submission characteristic of Catholic 
doctrine, should doubtless also be taken into account. 

24 



Something more, however, than the mere dissemination of 
Hberal sentiments and of a desire for national independence and 
for self-government had to supervene in order that the Spanish- 
American colonies might achieve their independence. They 
had been drained of their resom-ces to enrich the mother 
country. Their peoples, instinctively loyal, had been long 
trained to submission. The powerful sanctions of religion 
were invoked to strengthen the hold of civil authority. And 
Spain was, and had long been, a proud and efficient military 
power. It was only, therefore, when the nightmare of the 
Napoleonic cataclysm was upon Europe, and when the Spanish 
Government, along with many others, had fallen into the 
hands of the Corsican, that the clock of destiny struck for 
Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and the rest. They did not 
break the shackles that held them to the Old World; the 
shackles fell away. 

In Mexico the culmination came by the working of a queer 
contradiction, thoroughly characteristic of that anomalous 
land. For years there had been restlessness on the part of the 
indigenous peoples. They did not quite know what independ- 
encia meant, but they were sure that their condition ought to 
be improved — that, indeed, it could not be worse. So, at last, 
while the Corsican dominated the mother country, they rose 
up in a great wave of protest, and under the priest Hidalgo, 
sweeping all before them, came to the very gates of Mexico 
City. They could doubtless have taken it by mere weight of 
numbers, had they gone on. But the heart of the priest- 
general failed him. He hesitated, then retired. Once the 
retreat had begun, the vast throng of unarmed, ill-provisioned 
peasants disintegrated under the blows of a small group of 
soldiers; and in a few months Hidalgo's head was upon a stake. 
This was in 1810-11. Guerrilla bands kept the war going. 
The government policing was inefficient at best. Spain needed 
all her soldiers and all her attention for affairs at home. Be- 
tween republicans in his own domain and Napoleonism outside, 
the lot of the Spanish monarch was just then far from happy. 
Even after the allies disposed of Napoleon and were settling 
the affairs of Europe, they could not save Ferdinand VII of 
Spain from domestic troubles. The Juntas and the Cortes 

25 



were demanding a liberal constitution, freedom of the Govern- 
ment from ecclesiastical control, and reforms of all kinds. 

In Mexico, the ragged patriots who had been for ten years 
warring for independence were opposed by a Government and 
an Army which represented loyalty to the old order — the 
Crown and the Church, the Catholic Monarchy of Spain. So 
when Spain itself appeared about to divest itself of the Catholic 
king, the happy thought occurred to the loyal leaders overseas 
to invite him to Mexico to set up a monarchy which should 
thenceforth be independent of Spain. By this step the demand 
for independence could be reconciled with loyalty to the Church. 
The compromise was proposed to the rebels, who, as good 
Catholics, but desirous of national independence, saw nothing 
objectionable in it. Thus the two sides came together under 
the "Plan of Iguala," and the tri-color flag of independent 
Mexico was adopted, the red, white, and green signifying the 
three guarantees of independence, religion, and union. Despite 
his troubles with the liberals in Spain, however, Ferdinand did 
not emigrate to Mexico; and though the plan which had been 
adopted provided for another succession in that event, the 
ambition of Iturbide, the loyalist leader, led him to assume the 
position of Emperor of Mexico, and to attempt to set up there 
an independent kingdom. Republican sentiment was very 
strong among the Mexicans, however, and Iturbide's kingdom 
was of short life. Following it came the adoption of the first 
republican constitution, that of 1824, which was the beginning 
of the effort, that still continues in that unhappy land, to 
establish on the basis of the independence so strangely achieved 
the rule of the people by the people. 



26 



IV 
CONDITIONS AT BEGINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 

Summary 

The prolonged failure of popular government in Mexico was due to the 
failure of the Colonial system of education. The real people had not been 
educated. On the contrary, numerous factors had been at work to degrade 
them. They were the victims of all kinds of tyrannies. Wealth came at 
last to be the social criterion. By its possession or its lack, the people 
were grouped into higher and lower classes. The matter of blood and race 
gradually ceased to be of importance. 

AFTER a hundred years, self-government is yet without 
assured success in Mexico. It is not too much to say 
that the principal reason for this is to be found in the 
failure of early plans for the education of the people. For 
those devices, undertaken as has been already described, three 
centuries before, had failed. The priests, the lawyers, the 
doctors, the sons of wealthy families, had received training, 
but the people — the Creoles, the mestizos, the Indians, the 
masses, or, speaking more exactly, the mass, of the Mexican 
people— were left in ignorance. The welter of social, political, 
industrial, and other influences had, indeed, wrought its effects 
on the common people. Their condition at the beginning of 
the period of independence was a composite result of these 
long-exerted forces. But that phase of it which is most out- 
standing, and which lay most obviously and stubbornly in 
the road of future political success under republican forms, was 
their ignorance. Careful estimates indicate that of a popula- 
tion of perhaps 6,000,000, only 30,000 could read and write. 
This, as will be seen, is exactly one-half of one per cent. 

The truth is that there had never been any sentiment in 
favor of the education of the Indians aside from that exhibited 
by the very early missionaries. The mestizos were almost 
equally unfortunate. And since even the monks had a most 
limited conception of what education the Indians required, 
and since their successors, the secular curates, did not even carry 

27 



forward the rudimentary instructions that had at first been 
undertaken, the outcome of it all was that the bulk of the 
Mexican population was little better off in the matter of letters 
at the end of the Spanish dominion than at the beginning. 

Meantime, numerous influences had tended to degrade the 
Mexicans of the lower classes. The very insistence on class 
distinction had been little short of a calamity. The caciques 
held their subjects in low esteem, as belonging to an inferior 
order. This discrimination — for which there seems to have 
been no sort of justification in fact — was accepted by the 
Spaniards. It was even enforced by them, which was far more 
serious. They saw no reason why the chiefs should not hold 
their subjects as slaves, as they had formerly done, though 
the Spanish Government, through its Council for the Indies, 
and through the influence of the Church, contended earnestly 
against anything like enslavement of the Indians. The 
decrees and dispositions relative to this and similar abuses, 
still of record in the archives of the Spanish Crown, are greatly 
to the credit of the Christian monarchs of those days, and to 
that of the ecclesiastical leaders who were their principal 
advisers. 

But it seemed impossible to devise regulations which the 
avarice and the arrogance of the colonists could not set aside. 
The very means of which the Crown availed itself for the 
Christianizing and protection of the Indians were constantly 
taken advantage of by the colonial overlords to oppress and 
enslave them. The caciques led the way in domineering 
cruelty and industrial exploitation, and the Spanish colonists 
and Creoles were apt and willing learners. Were lands distrib- 
uted to Spanish soldiers and settlers, they seized the people 
along with them. Indeed, repartimientos soon came to be 
calculated in heads of people, instead of hectareas of land. 
Were the Indians commended to Christian settlers, to be 
taught and Christianized, the settlers made them work on 
farms and in mines; and while pocketing the resulting riches, 
justified themselves by pretending that the Indians were 
benefited by the discipline. Even the teachers made the 
natural sloth and backwardness of their Indian pupils a pretext 
for inhuman floggings, and adopted as one of their chief 

28 



principles the common pedagogical saying, La letra con sangre 
entra — Learning enters through blood-letting. 

In many sections the sternest kind of measures were taken 
to force the Indians, habituated to solitude and privacy, to 
live in villages. The extent to which such a regulation would 
lend itself to abuse never seems to have dawned on the author- 
ities in Spain. They were interested in facilitating the work 
of evangelization, and, incidentally, the census, for purposes 
of taxation. Another injustice, which all the humaneness and 
even tenderness of the regulations concerning the poor natives 
of the New World failed to atone for, was the odious head tax 
of one dollar a year, exacted of all Indians from the very 
beginning. This tax was divided into various funds, only a 
part of it going directly to the Crown. But the collection of 
it subjected the Indians to incalculable abuses, and resulted, 
also, in systematic and lucrative fraud upon the part of the 
collectors. They falsified the census returns, for example, 
reporting far fewer Indians than they really had collected from; 
also, they often managed, by the connivance of the local 
authorities and otherwise, to increase the amount of the tax 
itself, to the tribulation of the poor Indians. 

These came in time to view with suspicion and uneasiness 
every measure enforced among them. The King of Spain 
might mean to be kind, but his laws always worked sorrow for 
them. There were, as times passed, violent native uprisings 
in several sections of the country, and more than one prolonged 
and bloody Indian war. Yet for the most part the natives in 
the territory of what is now Mexico, were, like their descendants 
today, uniformly docile and pacific. 

As was inevitable from the beginning, the social distinc- 
tion between classes settled down finally upon the criterion of 
wealth. The caciques came to a more or less ridiculous end. 
As time went on, every Indian who chanced to be elected 
alcalde, or who received a government appointment of any 
kind, considered that he was thereby elevated to the class of 
cacique. The hereditary glamour which had continued to 
cling about certain families came thus gradually to fade. 
There were caciques on every hand, kings of shreds and patches; 
many of them trying to preserve ancestral dignity, though 

29 



living in clay huts, and digging to earn a scanty fare of corn 
and beans.* 

Many of the descendants of the conquistadores were equally 
unimpressive. Not having taken pains to acquire, or having 
failed to hold, productive lands or mines that might have given 
them the enduring power of gold, as against the brief glory of 
being victors and officers of the Crown, they slid down, along 
with their mestizo descendants, into the great conglomerate 
mass. The various ingredients making up that mass became 
year by year more and more indistinguishable. They were 
fused together in the fire of poverty, they were welded into one 
under the hammer of persecution. By the time of national 
emancipation there had thus come into being the vast and 
fairly homogeneous mass of the Mexican people — five millions 
of them, more or less. Of these at least nine-tenths belonged to 
the "lower class." Aside from a few crude and isolated Indian 
tribes, left undigested in remote mountainous sections, and the 
exceptionally depraved substratum in the larger cities, there 
was no warrant for distinguishing these nine-tenths of the 
Mexicans from the other tenth as "lower." The distinction 
was alike invidious and gratuitous.! Cacique was no longer 
distinguishable from macehual; hidalgo and criollo were jumbled 
together inseparably; even the despised mestizo, now multiplied 
until he formed half or more of the total population, could no 
longer be looked down upon. All these elements were present 
in the "upper class," as well as in the mass. The Mexican 
people in blood, at least, was at last one. Its classes differed 
only in the matter of opportunity, and in those traits resulting 
from opportunity, or the want of it. This was the situation 
which the men faced who undertook, a hundred years ago, to 
follow the lead of their neighbors just to the north in establish- 
ing a popular government. Those men, during the stress of a 
ten years' war, had been themselves drawn from all the different 



*The real caciques have not wholly disappeared from the Republic, but within the last twenty 
or thirty years have changed their characteristics. Don Juan Alvarez, a cacique of the State 
of Guerrero, in the middle of the last century, was a zealous patriot, who later became president 
of the Republic. Today there are remnants of the cacique system in such states as Oaxaca 
and Chiapas. — E. A. C. 

tThe existence of an immense mass of poor people and of a few rich families was not a new 
situation for Mexico. The lack of unity in each class, emphasized by differences in educa- 
tion, was the essential fact. — E. A. C. 

30 



groups composing the population. Some were of pure Spanish 
blood, some were Indians, some mestizos. They all agreed, 
in so far as they faced at all the problems involved in their 
undertaking, that one of the primary steps required would be 
the education of the people. Ignorance was general and 
appalling; and citizens of sovereign republics must not be 
ignorant. 



31 



V — EDUCATION UNDER THE REPUBLIC 

Summary 

The study of education prior to the founding of the Republic is only a 
preliminary process. Our chief interest is in what has been done since. 
Leaders in the movement for independence were, also, partisans of popular 
education. The constitution of 1824 was not exactly adapted to Mexican 
conditions. At the very beginning there arose the tense political con- 
troversy between Centralists and Federalists. The Hberation from Spanish 
political control was not the final consummation of Mexico's liberty. 
Spiritual, intellectual, and industrial liberty had yet to be achieved. The 
Centralists and clericals did not encourage popular education. Their 
oppressions tended to arouse the people. The liberal party favored educa- 
tion, but was never long in power. The country became greatly im- 
poverished by continuous fighting. This also hindered the development 
of public education. The burden was upon the States. They shifted it 
to the municipios. For lack of funds, of teachers, inspection, etc., progress 
was slow. Upon the adoption of the Constitution of 1824, and the state 
constitutions, there followed much scholastic legislation. It was made 
sterile by repeated revolutions. 



FOR our present purpose the preceding exposition of 
educational and social conditions during and at the 
close of Mexico's colonial days is merely preliminary. 
The Mexican people are still engaged, as they have been with 
deadly earnestness for a century, in the attempt to maintain 
popular government. It is the educational history which has 
accompanied this endeavor, not that which preceded it, which 
will throw most light on conditions now obtaining, and those 
to be faced in the immediate future. That history, however, 
more especially during the early decades of the nation's inde- 
pendent life, has been largely typified by the ethnic, social, 
industrial, and political conditions remaining over as an 
inheritance from vice-regal days. It has seemed worth while, 
therefore, to set forth those conditions in this somewhat 
extended review. Perhaps it is not amiss, also, to draw 
attention once more to the fact that racial influences had, and 
still have, much to do with any matter affecting the life of the 
Mexican people. We, as citizens of the United States, are 

32 



without a parallel in experience for the racial history and 
situation offered by Mexico. In this part of America the 
nomadic and scattering aborigines gave way so swiftly and so 
completely before the invasion of their country by European 
settlers, that they exerted no appreciable effect as an amalgam 
in the subsequent population. They were not attached to the 
soil, nor had they developed social, political, or industrial 
efficiency to a point that would make it possible for them 
to mingle with and compete with the immigrants. In Mexico 
all was different. No greater mistake could be made than to 
judge the "Indians" of that country by the "Indians" who 
inhabited this. 

While it is true, as was pointed out above, that the leaders 
in those movements which consolidated the political inde- 
pendence of Mexico accepted the principle that the people 
should be educated, it can not be said that they concerned 
themselves immediately and actively with this undertaking. 
Their first problem was the political one. That was both 
intense and urgent. They were unconscious themselves of 
how contradictory were their theories, and the facts with 
which they had to deal. Led by a natural and innocent 
enthusiasm, they were bent upon following the successful 
example of the United States, and establishing a universal 
democracy. They even went so far as to model their con- 
stitution by ours, providing for a federation of sovereign 
states. The American Constitution grew out of the voluntary 
association of such states, political entities that had had a 
previous separate existence. The Mexican states, as framed 
under the new constitution, had had no such history. In a 
general and loose way as provinces of the larger colony of New 
Spain, or as dioceses in Church government, they had ex- 
perienced a quasi-separation from each other. As a matter of 
fact, the vice-regal government had always been strongly, 
even autocratically, centralized. For such a situation the 
American Constitution, a compromise document, qualified by 
the mutual jealousies of all the component English colonies, 
and with difficulty agreed to even then, was a manifest misfit. 

Equally obvious was the gap between purpose and realiza- 
tion when sovereign citizenship and the responsibility for self- 

33 



government were in theory conferred upon an illiterate and 
untrained mass of five millions of people. A very large propor- 
tion of them were serfs. Though freed from the authority of 
the Spanish Crown, they were still under the heel of land- 
owners and mine bosses. Three hundred years of virtual 
slavery had induced in them the servile type of mind. They 
were contentedly ignorant. They were instinctively submis- 
sive. Their religion was a crass superstition. They had no 
intellectual life, no mental stimulus, no aspirations. If this 
had been true merely of a small proportion of the total popula- 
tion, it might not have been held serious. But the proportion 
was large, not small; it was preponderant; it was well nigh 
the whole. 

Almost instantly, moreover, the matter of the enlighten- 
ment and training of this ill-prepared citizenship was forced 
into the background by acute friction among the leaders over 
politics. The country had been trained for centuries to 
centralized government, usually an autocratic one. The 
idealists had wished to get away from the evils of this system, 
and so the new constitution called for a federation. It was 
adopted — the first one, of 1824 — as a rebound from the auto- 
cratic monarchy which Iturbide had attempted to set up. 
From that day to this, from the close of the first constitutional 
president's term in 1828 to the revolution of 1913, the struggle 
between Centralists and Federalists has contributed its full 
share to the political problems of Mexico. The two parties 
have at times taken other names, and have had, both of them, 
many affiliations and associates, but they remain substantially 
the same. There was much of right and of reason on both 
sides. One may well regret that the early governmental 
schedules did not make provision for some recognition of such 
political training as the Mexican people had hitherto received, 
instead of following too closely standards set up elsewhere 
under wholly different conditions. Yet it must be admitted, 
after all, that the difficulties with which the Mexicans had to 
contend were inherent. It was impossible that out of elements 
there existing a free people should be brought into being 
without travail. 

34 



Mexico's troubles did not cease with independence. Her 
people had to be freed from other restraints besides the polit- 
ical power of Spain. The dominion of ignorance and super- 
stition had to be broken, and the thralldom of an intolerable 
industrial system annihilated. The Church and the Army 
from the first instinctively allied themselves with the centraliz- 
ing tendencies. In this they were backed by the wealthy and 
aristocratic elements in the population. Against this puissant 
combination of spiritual, military, and financial powers, the 
people, like a blind and helpless, but tremendously vital giant, 
have struggled for a hundred years. It is human nature to 
cling to one's possessions, and Church and Army and land- 
holders alike held on tenaciously to the special privileges that 
had come to them in the days of royalty and favoritism. It 
was forty years after independence came, for example, before 
the attempt to have a State Church, intolerant of all others, 
was abandoned. For nearly the same length of time the 
clergy and the military had special courts of their own (fueros), 
and were not amenable to the ordinary courts of the land. 
For the perpetuation of these privileges they fought bitterly. 
Yet all the time the patriots were struggling to inaugurate 
equality before the law. * 

This effort to have a State Church in a free republic serves 
well as an illustration of how slowly the Mexicans themselves 
came to understand the inherent contradictions between their 
program and their situation. Other examples are not wanting. 
And meantime the evils of that situation were at work. No 
group, for example, would openly oppose the education of the 
people. Yet it could not have been concealed from the party 
of privilege that once the common people were led out of this 
stupor of helpless ignorance, they would also be clothed with 
power to achieve their ideals. Hence, as may easily be inferred, 
when the Centralists were in power, not much progress was 
made in developing popular education. And since that party 



*Indeed, in a real sense this has not been a popular contest. "The people" as a social entity, 
with a social conscience, does not exist in Mexico. Such measure of liberty and equality as has 
come to its inhabitants is the result of a long and weary struggle among strong, audacious 
leaders, few in number, frequently misinformed, and seldom displaying any unity of purpose 
among themselves. Yet, up to 1910, they had achieved considerable progress in organizing 
a certain type of government, roughly adapted to the genius of the people, and in developing 
the material resources of the country. — E. A. C. 

35 



naturally gathered unto itself the enlightened elements of the 
population, the men who had had experience in holding office 
and who had studied the science of government, while 
their opponents were for the most part crudely trained, drawn 
from the mass of Indians and mestizos, men who had forged 
their way upward from the lower stratum of society, nothing 
was more natural than that for a good many years the Centralists 
should be in power most of the time. They held the upper 
hand till there was time for the training of a generation in the 
hard school of experience. A thoughtful Mexican historian 
explains the fact that the liberals were so long in the minority 
by the skill with which their opponents made every issue a 
religious question. The people, devoted as they were to the 
Church, were most reluctant to take sides against the Church 
leaders, or to help a party which, as those leaders assured them, 
was bent upon the destruction of religion itself. 

During those decades, instead of adjusting themselves to 
the situation, and incorporating into their program enough of 
popular measures to hold the good will of the masses, and to 
deprive their opponents of weapons with which to fight them, 
the Centralists — with the usual fatuousness of people of that 
type — went quite to the contrary extreme. The absurd 
constitution of 1836, the repeated dictatorships of Santa Anna, 
the arrogance of the army, the loss of Texas and the fiasco of 
the American war, together with gross financial wastefulness, 
the neglect of public works, and the impoverishment of an 
already exhausted country, culminating at last in the crowning 
treason of bringing in a foreign potentate — all this laid up for 
them a heavy score to be paid off when the day of reckoning 
came. That day moved inevitably onward, a veritable dies 
irae. Juarez, the little Indian, personification of native Mexico, 
with his little cabinet of the inmaculados (stainless), and his 
ragged regiments of volunteers, was the instrument in the hands 
of long-delayed but inevitable Justice. 

While the long struggle was under way, the popular party 
saw as clearly as did their opponents, that the education of the 
people was the one step which would guarantee the triumph of 
genuine democracy. Their leaders are on record again and 
again as laying down this principle; and in the brief intervals 

36 



when they had control, measures were repeatedly taken in 
the interest of education. But those intervals of power were 
infrequent and brief. In two outline histories of education 
during the nineteenth century, one covering the State of 
Jalisco and the other that of Nuevo Leon, time and again the 
authors, after detailing plans that had been laid out, laws that 
had been passed, the personnel even of the teaching force that 
had been nominated, mournfully remark that all these provi- 
sions became ineffective at a certain date because of changes in 
the political situation. The hardships endured by many men, 
in all sections of the Republic, who felt themselves called 
to this work of educating the people, and who persisted in their 
attempt to be obedient to this high calling, no matter what 
happened in politics and public affairs, make a chapter of 
heroism that the future historian of Mexico will dwell upon 
with just pride. 

Another factor, in addition to the perennial political dis- 
turbances, affected profoundly the development of public 
education. This was the poverty of the public treasury. 
The constant shifting of the political center of gravity caused 
frequent armed conflicts. These brought their inevitable 
accompaniments of ineffective policing, of neglected agri- 
culture and diminished commerce, and of the absorption of 
all available men into the armies, and of all available funds into 
the war treasury. "Military necessity" was often a pretext 
for robbery, and first one party and then the other harried the 
country, carrying off grain and livestock, robbing convoys of 
bullion, frightening capital into hiding, and in numerous other 
ways reducing a country naturally rich in resources to a state 
of abject penury. This condition was the rule rather than the 
exception during the entire sixty years from 1820 to 1880. 
The shifts to which the military and political leaders were 
driven to finance their movements, especially those of the 
popular or liberal party, who, to begin with, represented the 
side of poverty as against wealth, are only equalled by the 
misery in which these continuous revolutions left the people 
at large. Cities, haciendas, and churches, were stripped of 
every form of visible wealth. Silver ornaments were melted 
down and coined into money, jewelry and precious stones 

37 



were sold, lead was molded into bullets, steel was beaten into 
weapons, bells became cannon, grain was commandeered for 
the commissary. The whole land was peeled again and again. 

Naturally, when the national treasury itself was empty the 
separate states were still worse off. The state organizations 
were the plaything of national politics. The Federalists set 
them up in due form and order; the Centralists in their turn 
upset and even abolished them, or, at least, subordinated them 
completely to the central Government. Since, following still 
the example of the United States, the matter of education had 
been left wholly to the initiative of the several states, this 
uncertainty, this precariousness of tenure, on the part of the 
state governments, affected most disastrously the interests of 
education. One might expect, however, that during the long 
permanence in power of the Centralist party, some measures, 
by way of pretext, at least, for the education of the people 
would have been devised by the general Government. The 
only instance would seem to be the law of 1842, referred to 
below. For the leaders of the Centralist party had been 
trained in the school of Spanish politics. They apparently were 
not sure that the common people needed education. Subcon- 
sciously they felt also no doubt, as already suggested, that the 
education of the masses would be disastrous to their favorite 
policies and would jeopardize their temu'e of power. 

As for the states, another element of uncertainty was 
introduced into educational endeavor, during the intervals 
when the states were permitted to exercise a reasonable measure 
of autonomy, and that was the division of responsibility for 
the schools between the state governments and the munici- 
palities. Partly to follow still the theory of local self-govern- 
ment, but even more because the poverty of their treasuries 
made them helpless, the state authorities from time to time 
tried the experiment of leaving education wholly to the munici- 
pal governments. These municipios are in conception some- 
what like the early New England "towns." They comprise 
rural districts along with the central settlement. Naturally, 
nothing was gained by this device. If the state was poor, 
the municipalities were poorer. They had only the scantiest 
funds for an undertaking that seemed to them colossal. More- 

38 



over, the schools thus handled were without the supervision 
of experts from the central office of the state, and only in the 
capitals and other larger cities were men to be found capable 
of taking the management of such work. In spite of excellent 
theories, therefore, and in the face of a constantly growing and 
urgent popular demand— and this was something really new, 
a by-product of the long-drawn struggle for freedom — educa- 
tion languished.* 



*A definite instance of this sort occurred in Coahuila and Texas when, in 1833, the legislative 
body of that dual state provided that the various municipalities were to sell the public property 
within their limits and use the funds for the establishment of primary schools. Moreover, 
all vacant property was to revert to the state and be used for a similar purpose. Yet no 
substantial improvement followed this legislation. Cf. Cox, op. cit. 39, 40. 

Senor Chavez reports that under the Diaz government the Secretaria de Instruccion Piiblica 
y Bellas Artes often received requests for aid from "scantily-settled communities where the 
scholastic population was so sparse as to make the maintenance of a school most difficult." 
These requests for the foundation of schools by the general Government sometimes came from 
communities outside the federal district and were accompanied by offers of small buildings 
and other properties for school purposes. This desire to co-operate, so far as its scanty resources 
permitted, was also manifested by the Mexican authorities of San Antonio in the period men- 
tioned above. — I. J. C. 

39 



VI — DEVELOPMENTS, 1821-1867 

Summary 

The first of these dates, 1821, marks the achievement of independence, 
the second the triumph of repubhcanism. Since the second, 1867, education 
in Mexico has assumed its modern form, as obligatoria, gratuita, y laica — 
compulsory, free, and secular. 

A long series of revolutions began in 1829. Early legislation was 
obliterated by them. Use has been made of a history of education in Jalisco, 
and of a similar history for Nuevo Leon. One development of the early 
movements was a reawakening on the part of Church leaders. Education 
was still in their hands during the early decades. Nuevo Leon issued its 
constitution in 1825, providing for public education as a duty of the state. 
The legislature formulated a law which was passed February, 1826. This 
seems to have been one of the first instances of providing for compulsory 
education. Insufficient fiscal provisions marked the laws of the first 
decade. Jahsco, also, passed good laws. About this time the Lancasterian 
system was introduced. It suited a situation where funds and teachers 
were scarce. The system was adopted by the Federal Government, and 
gradually spread through all the states. In those same years came the 
development of the Institutos. These were remnants usually of the faculties 
of letters and philosophy of the old church universities. Now they became 
state schools. They were liberal and furnished centers for men of liberal 
ideas and propensities. French thought had begun to affect the life of 
Mexico. Through its acceptance in the institutos it reached directly the 
educated men, and through them the educational system. Controversies 
with Rome over patronage started a movement for separation between 
Church and State. Radical proposals were made as early as 1833. The 
Church resisted, and called in the army. Fueros were attacked. The 
next twenty years (1833-1853) the Government was most of the time Cen- 
trahst. Only one educational move was made at headquarters, and this, 
an executive order of Santa Anna in 1842, proved abortive. Lopez Cotilla 
was an apostle of education in Jalisco. Santa Anna's dictatorship in 
'53-54 brought on revolution. The Republicans undertook radical reforms 
and adopted the constitution of 1857. Resistance by the clericals brought 
on the Three Years' War and the Leyes de Reforma. The final breach 
between the Church party and the people came when the clericals supported 
the French Intervention. The reform laws had a wide-reaching effect. 
The confiscation of Church property was justified by those responsible, 
because of the interference of the clericals, and by reason of the needs of 
the liberal government. All this resulted in a radical change of educational 
standards. The Church was no longer looked to for public education. 
The State accepted this task as a duty and a responsibility. 

40 



THE above dates are chosen because the first marks the 
achievement of poKtical freedom from Spain, and the 
second the final vindication of the Republic, upon the 
ehmination of Maximilian and the French troops. The epoch 
is a well-marked period. During those four and a half decades 
the republican ideal gradually unfolded itself. The educational 
standard was evolved along with the rest. By the time Juarez 
was at last firmly seated as constitutional President (1868), he 
and his associates had begun to see clearly— what had hitherto 
appeared to them but fitfully and dimly — that, as it came to be 
expressed, education was the duty of the state (including the 
municipality) and should be obligatoria, gratuita, y laica — 
compulsory, free, and secular. In other words, it was recog- 
nized that the community was under obligation to supply tax- 
supported schools, and the parents under obligation to send 
their children to them; and that the theory long accepted that 
the Church could be depended on to supply public education, 
or, failing to do so, that the instruction given by the state 
could and should be distinctively religious, was untenable. 
Since we, at the very beginning of our national life, grappled 
with the problem of separating Church and State, confusion 
over the matter of religion in the public schools has in our 
country been a secondary matter. But in Mexico, the Church 
had had for hundreds of years entire control of education, even 
of that supported by taxation (which was not a great matter, 
to be sure). It was most natural, therefore, that it should take 
time for the people to come to see clearly the distinction between 
a church school and a public school. As a matter of fact, 
during those earlier years of the Republic, when the con- 
servative and centralist influences were most of the time in 
control of the Government, clerics continued to be the leaders 
in educational work. The little that was done in the direction 
of building up a public school system followed the time-honored 
custom of identifying the schools with the monasteries and 
convents, and relying almost wholly on the religious orders 
and secular clergy for teachers. 

The fleeting "empire" of Iturbide produced, so far as the 
writer has been able to ascertain, no educational movement. 
But when following it the republicans had their turn, they 

41 



embodied their noble and progressive aspirations in the Federal 
Constitution of 1824, in the rapidly succeeding state constitu- 
tions which were based upon it, and in the statutes and execu- 
tive orders which everywhere came in a shower to complete 
and make effective this organic legislation. Education was 
given the place of honor. Some state constitutions even went 
into particulars as to both principles and plans. Most of 
them, however, stopped with laying down principles, leaving 
details to be worked out in legislative statutes. 

The state congresses and executives did not delay to comply 
with this obligation. Everywhere educational programs were 
framed, systems of schools were laid out, courses of study were 
formulated. One reads today this elaborate legislation of 
nearly a hundred years ago with mingled feelings. It is 
admirable. It is surprising. There were educational seers in 
those days, men of prophetic vision. They had gathered 
suggestions and inspiration from all quarters. They were 
absolutely open-minded. Their limitations were entirely those 
of their time and conditions. In the law promulgated by the 
State of Nuevo Leon, for example, the principle of compulsory 
attendance at school is distinctly laid down ; and 1826 is a very 
early date in the history of this phase of public education. 

But for all that, the legislation did not "march." In 1829 
began the long series of revolutions. The progressive and 
patriotic party was forced to yield control of the central govern- 
ment, and the conservatives, once in power, lost no time in 
bringing also the several states into alignment. All these 
elaborate and promising provisions for the education of the 
people went then to the scrap-pile, along with most other 
elements of the liberal program. Those early educational laws 
have now about them an atmosphere of pathos. It seems too 
bad that what promised so well should have come to naught. 

Reference has been made to the legislation in the State of 
Nuevo Leon. I have had, also, before me a history of primary 
education in Jalisco. The story there is almost identical. No 
doubt, the archives of many other states, if searched, would 
disclose substantially the same history. Zacatecas, for example, 

42 



has long been known as a leader in educational matters, as 
have been, also, Veracruz, Coahuila, and others. * 

Following the effervescence of laws, projects (proyectos), 
and programs during the quadrennium 1824-28, came a period 
of quiescence. There were many resolute spirits, however, 
who had consecrated themselves to the work of teaching, and 
who were not greatly concerned wdth politics. These kept on 
with their propaganda, and the subject was not allowed to 
lapse. Some of the Church leaders, also, unwilling to forego 
the long ascendancy which they had enjoyed in teaching, 
bestirred themselves anew. For several years all legislation 
or official action of any kind that was taken with reference to 
education reverted to the colonial type in placing the work of 
teaching in their hands. One interesting and unique incident 
was a provision in some of the states for Sunday schools. 
These schools, to be held on Sundays and other feast days, 
were for the training of adults, as well as children, but were 
limited specifically to the teaching of reading and writing. 
Prizes were offered to the teachers who could show a certain 
number of "graduates" in these branches. This was one 
effort to make up for the neglect of educational affairs shown 
by the Church leaders during the Spanish regime. So rare 
was the ability to read and write at the time of the revolution 
that when the government of Iturbide sought men for appoint- 
ment as the chief officers of municipalities, it is related on good 
authority that there were towns of ten and twelve thousand 
inhabitants without a single man able to write. 

Before dismissing from our consideration the educational 
ideals with which the Mexican Republic began its history — 



*The decree of the constitutional congress of the state of Coahuila and Texas, May 13, 1829, 
provided for the establishment of schools on the Lancasterian plan, in the capital of each of 
the three departments into which the state was divided. These schools, restricted to 150 
pupils each, were not free to all, but the separate municipal councils could maintain a limited 
number of pupils in each school at public expense, and loan money to the general school fund, 
in special emergencies. A comprehensive plan to raise money for the school fund was adopted 
and measures taken to provide adequate salaries for the teachers. Instruction was to be 
given in reading, writing, arithmetic, the dogma of the Catholic reUgion, and all of Ackerman's 
"Catechisms of Arts and Sciences." In the following year the plan was modified so as to 
provide for primary schools, the stipendium for teachers was considerably reduced, and a system 
of "rewards of virtue and application" introduced. Despite the good intentions back of these 
decrees, the absolute lack of funds prevented their realization. Cf. Cox, op. cit. 36-39. — 
I. J. C. 

43 



those plans which for so long went without realization — in 
order that we may take up the further course of the history of 
education there, it will be worth while, perhaps, to review 
briefly the specific provisions then made. They have been 
indicated hitherto in only a desultory way. Details are given 
of the legislative provisions and executive orders in Nuevo Leon 
and Jalisco only. Their similarity will at once be noted, and 
it may be inferred that they constitute a fair type of what took 
place generally throughout the Republic. 

From the concise and admirable Historical Review of Public 
Education in Nuevo Leon {Resena Historica de la Instruccion 
Publica en Nuevo Leon), written twenty years ago by an able 
and honored representative of the teaching profession {pro- 
fesorado) of Mexico, Professor Miguel F. Martinez, are taken 
the following particulars. The Federal Constitution having 
been proclaimed October 4, 1824, the people of Nuevo Leon 
made haste to issue their state constitution, which was adopted 
March 5, 1825. Article 230, section 10, of this instrument 
declared that it was obligatory upon city governments to 
"promote the proper education of the young, to estabhsh 
endowed schools of primary grade, to see to the due conserva- 
tion and right government of those already in existence, 
respecting always the rights of individuals or corporations." 
(Endowment here could scarcely have meant invested funds.) 
Section 12, of the same Article, laid upon the members of these 
same municipal governing bodies the duty of "visiting the 
schools weekly, in order to inform themselves of their condition 
and progress, such special attention being warranted by their 
importance." 

In Article 257 the same constitution even went into details 
as to the course of study for primary schools. It ordered that 
in all villages of the state primary schools should be established 
in which should "be taught reading, writing, the principles of 
numbers, the catechism of Christian doctrine, and a summary 
explanation of the duties of citizenship." 

Still another Article, 259, ordered the state legislature to 
formulate "a general governing plan for public instruction" to 
obtain throughout the state, based upon "a simple and practi- 
cable method, properly adjusted to existing conditions." 

44 



One year after the adoption of the Constitution, February, 
1826, the legislature issued as Provisional Act No. 73 the plan 
provided for. It is divided into three parts: 1. General Pro- 
visions; 2. Primary Instruction; 3. Secondary Instruction. 
Among the General Regulations is found one already referred 
to, which affirms (Art. 4) : "Parents who through poverty can 
not teach or have taught their children and servants at home 
their Christian and civic duties, and to read and to write, shall 
be required to send them to the public schools, such exemption 
being made as the proper authority may permit in case they are 
needed on farm or ranch or other productive work." Mr, 
Martinez is disposed to claim on this basis, and with apparent 
justice, that compulsory education in Nuevo Leon dates from 
the year 1826. He admits that the law failed to provide for 
the enforcement of this obligation, and that the law itself was 
in force as such but a few years.* It stands still, however, as 
a tribute to the ideals of the men of that early day. 

Our author gives at some length the provisions for primary 
schools. The course of studies was so elaborate and so modern, 
that compared with that agreed upon at the First National 
Congress on Education held in 1889, a curriculum that was 
practically universal in the Republic at the time Mr. Martinez 
wrote (1894), only five items were lacking, viz.: "lessons of 
things, metric system, bookkeeping, political economy, and 
choral singing." But there were three of genuine value in the 
early course that were wanting in that of 1889, namely, horti- 
culture, agriculture, and rifle-firing. Special emphasis was 
given to manual training and domestic arts, especially in the 
course for girls. In 1829 this Provisional Statute No. 73 was 
given the full force of law. Special provisions applying to 
the districts of the state had already been passed, requiring the 
municipalities to see that schools were provided even in the 
smallest settlements (rancherias) — Mexico has no strictly rural 
population — and demanding again that the municipal author- 
ities see to it that parents whose children roamed the streets 



*For a similar condition in the neighboring state of Coahuila and Texas, cf. Cox, op. cit. 
36-40. In this state the authorities continued to express their sentiments on the subject of 
education as late as 1834. In his message of that year the governor wished to arouse the 
parents of the state to the necessity of educating their children, "in order to banish the chaos 
of ignorance in which the greater part of the communities lie." Coahuila and Texas resisted 
the centralizing policy of Santa Anna long after other regions had submitted. — I. J. C. 

45 



should be compelled to send them to school or to put them to 
work. 

Unfortunately the force of the legislation spent itself in 
theoretical plans. No definite provision was made for financing 
the system. It seems all the way to have been expected that 
the municipal governments would assume the financial burden. 
But they were poor, and their taxing authority limited. In 
the absence of specific orders the thing went by default. It 
was this failure more than anything else which made the 
disappearance of the whole enterprise follow so easily upon a 
shift in the political situation. Had fiscal provisions been 
made, and a definite body and continuity been thus com- 
municated to the educational movement, its momentum would 
have carried it forward, and the men who succeeded to power 
would have thought twice before laying violent hands upon it. 
Left unsupported, it fell by its own weight, or speaking more 
exactly, it never had any but a theoretical and paper existence. 

Sixteen years after the issue of the Review prepared by 
Professor Martinez came the centenary of national independ- 
ence, celebrated in 1910. In commemoration of the event, 
Professor Manuel R. Alatorre, at the time School Inspector for 
the State, prepared that year a history of primary education 
in Jahsco, from 1810 to 1910. This excellent monograph 
compared with that of Mr. Martinez exhibits strikingly the 
similarity of conditions throughout the Repubhc. As in 
Nuevo Leon, there was in Jalisco the beginning out of nothing 
under the liberal regime 1824-28, followed by the same sudden 
lapse at the end of that period, due to political changes and 
inadequate financing, the same indomitable persistence by 
devoted teachers, the same semi-revival through a renewed 
coalition with the Church leaders, the same final eclipse of the 
liberal educational plans under the selfish and illiberal admin- 
istration of Santa Anna. As an older and better organized 
"Intendencia," Jahsco had had in colonial days an educational 
development somewhat in advance of those of the border State 
of Nuevo Leon. Yet after the storm of the revolution there 
was little left on which to build. The City of Guadalajara, as 
early as 1821, undertook to open a primary school supported by 
city funds. Immediately after the consummation of national 

46 



independence, Jalisco became a sovereign state, having a 
population of half a million inhabitants. Its constitution, 
adopted in November, 1824, ordered that primary schools 
should be established in every village of the state, and that 
the legislature should provide a state-wide educational law. 

At the request of the legislature, the first Governor, Don 
Prisciliano Sanchez, had a law drafted, and on March 26, 1826, 
the bill was passed by that body. It provided that official 
education should be "public, free, and uniform," allowing 
private schools to be freely conducted, with only such inspection 
as would safeguard against infraction of the laws. Public 
instruction was to be divided into four classes — one class for 
the villages, one for the larger towns, one for the department 
capitals, and one for the state capital. The law appears to be 
rather a jumble as to requirements, as these classes, though 
grading upward by reason of the additions to the course of 
study, were also to be distinguished by the amount of the 
salaries paid to teachers. It exhibits a striking instance of 
the effect of old and powerful social inheritances, in that 
different classes of society had different classes of schools. 
The conception that some elements of the population were 
better and deserved more of the Government than others died 
hard. 

This Jalisco plan also placed the whole financial burden of 
the schools on the municipalities. So there, as in Nuevo Leon 
and elsewhere, two giant difficulties stood in the way — the lack 
of funds, and the lack of teachers. Nevertheless, mutual 
sacrifices made by municipal governments, and by such teachers 
as could be had, resulted in the opening of numerous primary 
schools throughout the state. The teachers were poorly paid, 
and they were inefficient, but a beginning was made. 

Schools could not, of course, be conducted without teachers 
and without funds to support them. As one examines the 
elaborate provisions for courses of study, discipline, organiza- 
tion, etc., which characterize this early legislation, and recalls 
how it all fell to the ground for want of these prime necessities, 
he gets the impression that it was the work of theorists. These 
men were so busy with their dream of a perfect system of schools 

47 



that they did not stop to make the practical provisions necessary 
for carrying on any kind of a school. 

At this juncture, when the hopelessness of the situation had 
been demonstrated by a few years of actual test, a remedy was 
offered which the Mexicans in their innocence seized upon with 
high hope. This was the Lancasterian system of schools. 

Among liberal and progressive men in Great Britain much 
good will had been aroused by the political liberation of Spanish 
America. England's ancient rivalry with Spain, and in particu- 
lar the antagonism felt by many of her citizens toward the 
reactionary policies of the Catholic monarchy, including the 
long nightmare of the Inquisition, made the story of this 
uprising of a whole continent to assert its independence, and 
to align itself with democracy and progress, a most fascinating 
one. English investors hastened to aid in the material develop- 
ment of these newly opened fields, and at the same time English 
philanthropists and teachers concerned themselves with the 
moral and social development of the Latin -American peoples. 
In the history of almost every republic of South America is 
enshrined the story of some man from Great Britain who 
dedicated his life and his fortune to the cause of education. 
This was rarer a hundred years ago than it is now. 

Even in England, popular education was at that time in its 
experimental stage. When, therefore, Joseph Lancaster pro- 
duced his scheme for making students teach one another, the 
extraordinary plan soon had a great vogue. Its defects do not 
need now to be pointed out. It was too much like the attempt 
of a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps ever to attain 
any solid success. Yet it did furnish rudimentary instruction 
of a sort, with an economy that was amazing. And the 
economy was even more marked in the matter of supplying 
teachers than in the actual money cost. 

This precisely met the situation in Mexico. Poor as were 
the states and the municipalities throughout the young Repub- 
lic, it was, nevertheless, easier to raise money than to supply 
teachers for the needed schools. Indeed, the chief difficulty 
was (and is to this day) the securing of teachers for whose 
services the people were willing to pay. It is said on excellent 
authority that today in the most scantily settled communities 

48 



of Mexico, where the scholastic population is so sparse as to 
make the sustaining of a school most difficult, it is easy to get 
the citizens to add to the stipend afforded by taxes if only they 
are assured of a competent teacher. The inefficiency of the 
teachers was, perhaps, the heaviest handicap upon the public 
education during these experimental years under the first 
constitution. 

The plan of Lancaster was, as will be recalled, to have the 
older pupils act as monitors and teachers of the younger. In 
this way one teacher could handle a very large number of stu- 
dents. This mode of instruction was spoken of as "mutual." 
Only reading, writing, and the rudiments of arithmetic were 
attempted. These schools had a rapid development in England 
itself during the opening years of the nineteenth century. 
Buildings and funds were provided by philanthropic men, and 
a large number of very poor children were thus taught. Later 
Lancaster, who had proved to be as impracticable in the 
organization and management of an effective system as he had 
been happy in the development of a fruitful idea, emigrated to 
America, spent some time in South America, and succeeded in 
giving wide advertisement to his idea. 

The Lancasterian system was introduced into Mexico in 
1822. * It was at once seized upon as the solution of a situation 
which offered a few teachers of real ability and a huge mass of 
pupils eager to be taught. For the whole period under review 
(1821-1867) it represented the educational activities of most 
of the states. It had not only the merit indicated, of enabling 
one teacher to handle — after a fashion — a large number of 
pupils, but the added one of developing initiative and an 
organic consciousness among the pupils themselves. In 
Guadalajara was founded in the year 1828 an official Lan- 
casterian State Normal School, under the direction of Professor 
Richard Jones, described as a relative of Joseph Lancaster. 
Special provision v/as made to secure the attendance of the 



♦The Sociedad Lancasteriana was founded in Mexico City in the year 1822 as a result of the 
strong impression produced by articles published in the newspaper El Sol for the diffusion of 
the system of Lancaster. The first schools were immediately started at Mexico City, and an 
effort was made to develop one of the schools as a Normal for the training of teachers for all 
the country. — E. A. C. (See the History of Mexican Education from the Beginnings till 1900, 
by Ezequiel A. Chavez, in Vol. II of Mexico: Its Social Evolution.) 

49 



rural teachers, their expense of travel and board being paid out 
of public funds. The school had a brief history only, and 
disappeared during the political convulsions of the early 
thirties. 

Another phase of the educational history of the period under 
review deserves separate mention. It was contemporary with, 
though perhaps a little slower and later than the Lancasterian 
movement, and had to do with higher education as that with 
lower. This was the gradual emergence of the central state 
schools called "Institutos." 

The Jesuits, as we have seen, had looked upon the higher 
education as their special province. The nucleus of a univer- 
sity according to Jesuit practice is always a theological semi- 
nary. The course of development then is to add, as time goes 
by and means are afforded, schools of jurisprudence, of medicine, 
and finally of philosophy. This latter meant, of course, the 
scholastic philosophy; and such a school was still a good 
distance removed from a college of liberal arts. It was, 
however, the only thing even remotely resembling it in the 
colonial days of Mexico. 

In 1767 the Jesuits were expelled from Mexico, as well as 
from all other parts of the Spanish kingdom, by an order of 
King Charles III. Their extensive libraries, school buildings, 
mission stations, and other properties were confiscated. The 
society had been popular in Mexico, and their sudden exile 
outraged and astounded the people. The institutions for 
higher learning which they had established in practically every 
leading city of the country, were taken over by the Crown. 
The theological work was at once placed in the hands of the 
secular clergy of the Church, but the schools of jurisprudence, 
medicine, and philosophy passed under state control. In 
many of the states of Mexico today the "Instituto" will be 
found housed in some old building near or on an open square 
called "Plaza de la Compafiia," that is, of the Company of 
Jesus. These institutions had then varying fortunes, according 
to the stability of the funds upon which they depended, the 
zeal of local government officials, the ability of the men directing 
the schools, and so on. The professional schools fared best, 
as they dealt in living needs and ministered to present demands. 

50 



The faculties of philosophy, of the "college proper," as the 
phrase sometimes goes in our own day and land, tended strongly 
to dry up. Nobody was greatly interested in scholastic 
philosophy. 

Yet these higher schools furnished a nucleus and a sugges- 
tion. Though of little importance during the later colonial 
period, very early in the course of the independent history of 
the states they began to be revived and reformed into "Insti- 
tutos." Far-seeing leaders perceived in them the promise of 
valuable service. With liberty from the Inquisition, and 
from the intervention of ecclesiastics in governmental affairs, 
books began to pour into the country. The young men were 
reading. They were demanding to know. They were calling 
for guidance. Why should not the states themselves provide 
it in these same "Institutos"? 

The breach that fifty years before had been opened between 
them and the theological seminaries was now widened. The 
country was still orthodox. Even the republican constitution 
had sought to perpetuate a state church. But the books which 
were now read by the teachers and pupils of these institutes 
were precisely those that orthodoxy could not tolerate. They 
were the caustic, dissolvent, irreverent, even atheistical essays 
of the French philosophers, who had reacted against Ultramon- 
tanism, in Church and State. 

It would scarcely be possible to overestimate the influence 
of this irruption of French ideas among the youth of Mexico, 
or of the "Institutos" as affording centers for the men who 
entertained them and asylums for the ideas themselves. These 
men were comparatively few in number. Most of them were 
identified with the recently introduced Masonic lodges, and 
this fact, along with the objectionable literature which they 
read and the revolutionary political ideas which they were 
suspected of entertaining, made it hard for them to avoid open 
conflict with the jealous and watchful hierarchy of the Church. 

A thorny and contradictory public question made the situa- 
tion all the more acute. This was the matter of ecclesiastical 
patronage. Since the patronage of Mexico had belonged to 
the Spanish Crown, and since the Pope had anathematized the 
revolutionary movement in Mexico, a situation had arisen 

51 



which nobody could disentangle. Mexico was still loyal to 
the Church. The clergy maintained under the Republic their 
special exemptions (fueros), and all other religions were out- 
lawed. The vast properties held under mortmain were as yet 
undisturbed. But neither the King of Spain nor the Pope 
would recognize Mexican independence. The Pope yielded 
first, because the Mexican Government was about to lay hands 
on the patronage of the Mexican Church. All this gave the 
revolutionary spirits an excellent pretext for launching a 
radical program. "Let us have separation between Church 
and State," they said; "let us abolish these special courts of 
the clergy, and make them amenable to law; and let us 
disentail these huge holdings of land, and see that they are 
distributed and made productive." Such were the proposals, 
held, if not clearly enunciated, by a group of men who rallied 
as early as 1833 about Valentin Gomez Farias, then Vice- 
President, a man destined to become an outstanding figure in 
the later stirring scenes of his country's history. It was in 
those same years that the young Indian, Benito Juarez, was 
breaking the intellectual shackles of the Jesuit seminary in 
Oaxaca, and was assisting in the revival of the Instituto there, 
an enterprise which later, as governor and president, he ever 
continued to cherish. 

Against this menace the Church leaders promptly appealed 
to the Army. Its officers enjoyed fueros also, and its spirit 
was instinctively conservative. Besides, the huge mass of the 
people could understand nothing of these new and shocking 
ideas. They got their instruction and their mental guidance 
almost wholly from the priests, who began freely to use pulpit, 
confessional, and social circle to discredit and outlaw this 
republicanism which was bruited about. The liberals were 
overwhelmed. Santa Anna came upon the scene at this 
juncture as champion of both Church and Army. Gomez 
Farias was banished; despite the fact that a moderate party 
had been formed to mediate between the extremists of both 
wings, and had received his support, along with that of other 
able liberals. 

In this period 1835 to 1855, the national Government was, 
most of the time. Centralist. Until the year 1842 the matter of 

52 



schools continued to be left to the states — called in those days 
Departamentos — which seem usually to have left it to the 
municipalities. In some of the capitals there was vigorous 
activity, under the lead, as a rule, of some one man, who as 
governor, state superintendent, inspector, or private citizen, 
devoted himself unselfishly to the cause. In Guadalajara 
statistics show that under the guidance of a board of education 
organized as early as 1837, of which Mr. Lopez Cotilla was the 
dominating spirit, there was maintained a system of primary 
schools. In 1839 there were in the city and its suburbs twenty- 
two such schools, twelve in the city proper. There was an 
attendance of 2,469 pupils, and the year's outlay was $10,448. 

In the year 1842 the Centralist government, at the time 
directed by Santa Anna, undertook at last to further primary 
education. An elaborate decree was issued, providing for a 
central Lancasterian board in Mexico City, which should have 
the exclusive right to prepare and license teachers, and for 
departmental boards subordinate to it. Governors of the 
Departments were required to establish at least one school for 
boys and one for girls for every ten thousand inhabitants, and 
were authorized to levy a special tax of one real (123/^ cents) 
on each head of a family. One per cent of this was to go to 
the central board. Attendance was to be obligatory, and the 
course of studies was prescribed. It embraced reading, 
writing, the four primary rules of arithmetic, and Christian 
doctrine. The whole system was placed under the patronage 
of the Virgin of Guadalupe. 

This proved to be another paper public school system. The 
upheaval consequent upon the war with the United States 
invalidated the little that had been done in the interval to 
set the system in operation. Professor Martinez says very 
bluntly that it was a system based so completely upon the 
conceptions and ideals of colonial days that it failed to appeal 
to the educational leaders throughout the country. What 
with being rigidly centralized and also subordinated to the 
dictates of the clergy, it lacked the atmosphere of freedom and 
of spontaneity which alone could win the co-operation of the 
men who were devoting their lives to the cause of education. 

53 



It had one noteworthy effect, which was to strengthen the 
position of the Lancasterian boards. These, both the national 
board and those of the Departments, had become more or less 
autonomous corporations, and after the usual manner of 
corporations they had begun industriously to extend their 
power. This temporary legal recognition gave them an ad- 
vantage, and they became so strong in some cities as later to 
dispute with regular state boards over questions of authority 
and administration. The Lancasterian standards were thus 
perpetuated to the close of the period which we have now under 
review. 

The American War resulted disastrously for the Centralist 
party. At the beginning of the fifth decade, the Federalists, 
after a long minority, again for a brief period secured control 
of the Government. The sovereign states were re-established, 
and the cause of education received instant attention. In 
Jalisco, Lopez Cotilla, the apostle of public education, had 
continued during all the intervening years to keep alive the 
work of the schools. Unconcerned apparently as to whether 
the government were conservative or liberal, whether he worked 
under a Department or a Sovereign State, whether the system 
was municipal or general, Lancasterian or other, he fought 
bravely on, devoting his life and his fortune to the cause of 
educating the youth of his country. The measure of his success 
during the trying decade, 1840-1850, is itself a criterion of 
the man's devotion and aptitudes. When in 1855 he was 
forced by ill health at last to give up his leadership — he was at 
that time Inspector General of Jalisco, once more a Departa- 
mento — he was mourned and eulogized by Government, teachers 
and the public. * 

The shameless dictatorship of Santa Anna, established in 
1853, and his utter incapacity for civil administration, brought 
the conservative party once more into disrepute, and augmented 
the number and strength of the progressives. By 1855 Santa 
Anna was banished, and a sturdy liberal soldier, Juan Alvarez, 
was in the presidential chair. The constitution of 1824, though 
it had been re-adopted once or twice at intervals when the 



♦Among other apostles of public education in Mexico during this period we may mention 
the name of Vidal Alcocer. His humble and self-sacrificing, but wonderful work was carried 
on in the City of Mexico. Of. Chavez, History of Mexican Education, loc. cit. — E. A. C. 

54 



liberals were in power, did not seem now to meet the needs of 
the situation. A constitutional convention was, therefore, 
ordered, and work begun on a new constitution. The radical 
reforms which had been hinted at in 1833 were now to become a 
reality. There was to be separation between Church and State. 
There was to be equality before the law. Fueros, both military 
and ecclesiastical, were doomed. There was to be a new 
assertion of the Rights of Man. The venerable Gomez Farias 
lived to see the fruition of his hopes. One of the finest episodes 
in Mexican history is the scene when, supported on either side 
by a son, he tottered forward to affix his signature as a member 
of Congress to that instrument, one which Mexicans still look 
upon as the charter of their freedom. The new constitution 
was proclaimed February 5, 1857. 

The clerical party, however, interposed a tremendous 
resistance. Fueros and political prestige could not be given 
up without a struggle. The three years' war that ensued 
(1858-1861) was the bitterest in Mexico's history. The con- 
servatives insisted on projecting into the foreground the 
religious question — on making it a war for and against religion. 
The storm proved too much for Comonfort, who had mean- 
time been elected President. He gave up and left the country, 
and Benito Juarez, who was at the time President of the 
Supreme Court, succeeded to his position. This remarkable 
man had sprung from a very humble Zapotec Indian family 
in the State of Oaxaca. Following a sister to the capital city 
of the same name, where she had work as a domestic servant, 
he obtained a similar position, learning to speak Spanish after 
he was fourteen years of age. He worked his way into the 
theological seminary, passed then to the Institute, studied 
law, taught, became director of the Institute, Congressman, 
governor of his state, and later, as we have seen. President of 
the Federal Supreme Court (then an elective position). 

The Conservatives, with the help of the army, took pos- 
session of the Capital and of the central part of the Republic, 
and Juarez was obliged, after a long and circuitous trip, full 
of personal dangers, to set up his government in Vera Cruz. 
It was from that city that he guided the destinies of the pro- 
gressive party during the bloody and fratricidal Three Years' 

55 



War, and there, at the height of that struggle, convinced at 
last that such a step was inevitable, he proclaimed the Reform 
Laws {Leyes de Reforma). This was in 1859. Fifteen years 
later, during the presidency of Lerdo de Tejada, those laws, 
placed thus irregularly in operation by executive order, were 
deliberately re-enacted and strengthened, by vote of the 
Federal Congress. Every year since, experience has served to 
confirm the Mexican people in the conviction that these laws 
are essential to their national well-being. This conviction is 
now well nigh universal among them, though the resistance 
of the Church officials has never ceased. 

Perhaps it will not be superfluous here to give the summary 
as compiled by Juarez and his ministers themselves, of what it 
was proposed by these laws to accomplish. They announced 
as their purpose: 

1. To adopt as a general and invariable principle absolute separation 
between state affairs and ecclesiastical affairs. 

2. To suppress all religious orders for men, without exception, seculariz- 
ing the priests who belonged to them. 

3. To extinguish all religious brotherhoods of every class. 

4. To close the novitiates of convents for women, allowing no more to 
enter, but permitting those under vows to continue to enjoy the income 
from their endowments or personal gifts, with a proper allowance for the 
support of worship. 

5. To declare to be the property of the nation all of the goods now 
administered by the clergy, regular or secular, under any title whatever, 
as well as that held by convents of nuns in excess of specific endowment 
gifts, and to alienate the titles to said property, accepting in part payment 
for them certain national securities. 

6. To declare that such remuneration as believers may give to their 
priests for administering the sacraments and for other ecclesiastical services 
— which if properly handled and distributed will suffice for the sustenance 
of public worship and of those who minister therein — shall be a matter of 
voluntary agreement between the parties interested, the civil authorities 
having nothing whatever to do with it. 

7. Moreover, in addition to these measures, which the Government 
believes are the only ones which will result in the proper submission of the 
clergy to the authorities of the state in all civil matters, while they remain 
free to devote themselves, as they should, to the exercise of a spiritual 
ministry, it believes further that it is indispensable that it should safeguard 
in the republic complete religious liberty, and this it will do, both as es- 
sential to its own well being and as demanded by modern civilization.* 



*JuBto Sierra, Juarez, 8M Obra y 8U Tiampo, p. 153. 

56 



Juarez was a strongly religious man. He seems to have 
been little affected by the materialistic philosophy of his time. 
As Governor of the State of Oaxaca he had enforced the col- 
lection, under the existing laws, of tithes for the parish priests. 
It was, no doubt, a source of real pain to him to be placed thus 
in the attitude of antagonizing the Church, which, as his 
opponents insisted, was the same thing as antagonizing religion. 
It is essential in the study of this episode to take note of a 
distinction which was perfectly clear to the mind of Juarez 
and his associates. Their struggle was against the higher 
clergy, the bishops, archbishops, and others, and not against 
the humble parish priests. The latter had furnished leaders 
and goodwill in all the revolutionary efforts, and their sym- 
pathies were sure to be with the common people to whom they 
ministered. But the hierarchy as a group, the successors of 
the men who in colonial days had been counselors of the kings, 
viceroys, visitors, members of the audieneia, of the India 
Council, the Inquisition, and the like, held tenaciously to the 
idea that they ought to share in the government. 

An important element in the gradual clearing up of the 
ideas of Juarez on this whole matter was his residence as an 
exile for about two years in New Orleans. With him were 
Ocampo, Mata, Arriaga, and others. They worked for their 
living as day-laborers, Juarez as a cigar-maker. This was in 
1853 and 1854, during the last dictatorship of Santa Anna. 
Their observation of liberty in operation, and the consequent 
prosperity and strength, made a profound impression upon 
them. Thenceforward, Juarez never doubted that one step 
at least was fundamental for the future of his country, and that 
was the establishment of religious liberty. 

Miguel Lerdo de Tejada was the intellectual leader of the 
group of reformers who conceived, formulated, and popularized 
the principle of complete separation between Church and State. 
One thoughtful Mexican historian declares that the Leyes 
de Reforma were really more fundamental in the evolution of 
Mexico's freedom than even the Constitution of '57 itself. 
This constitution had, however, opened the way, since it 
omitted (for the first time) the article declaring the Roman 
Catholic religion to be the official and only faith of the country. 

57 



Separation between Church and State is now so nearly an 
axiom in democratic governments that it will be no surprise 
to most students to find the Mexican people coming thus to 
accept it. The confiscation of Church property which ac- 
companied this acceptance was less evidently justifiable. The 
leaders of the patriotic party in 1859 offered several grounds 
for this step. In the first place, they said, "these great prop- 
erties — the real estate especially — were largely acquired by 
taxation. They are fundamentally national, because the 
nation authorized the contributions which created them. But 
they have been made unproductive by being withdrawn from 
settlement, taxation, and proper development, and their 
products devoted to the support of parasitic groups of men and 
women. Moreover, the Church leaders who persist in opposing 
the entire program of republican development, use this wealth 
to wage their campaign of opposition. They are able in war 
to employ large bodies of soldiers. Yet they have ever been 
unwilling, even in time of foreign war, to contribute to the 
expenses of the Government. Even now they are about to 
defeat the establishment of a genuinely modern, progressive 
constitution. They ought to be deprived of the means of 
doing this kind of mischief. The liberal Government, on the 
other hand, needs the resources which would thus be obtained. 
It is the champion of the poor people, and is itself, after pro- 
longed fighting, distressingly poor." 

Such were the arguments. Even before the Federal law 
was proclaimed from Vera Cruz, these principles had been put 
into operation in several states where constitutionalist gov- 
ernors had triumphed. Ortega, Vidaurri, Ogazon, and others 
were already testing them. Lerdo de Tejada said to Juarez 
about this time: "If you do not put into operation this reform, 
it will go into operation of itself." It had become a sort of 
self-evident matter with the leaders of the patriot party. But 
with the meager facilities then existing for reaching and teaching 
the people, and with the clericals more intent than ever upon 
impressing upon their followers that the liberal program was 
an attack on religion, the constitutionalist cause was not yet 
universally popular. It was at last slowly gaining the as- 
cendancy in arms, but might have needed still a long time 

58 



before winning the goodwill of the people at large, had not 
the conservatives made a final and fatal blunder. This was 
the bringing in of foreign intervention, resulting in the tragic 
"empire" of Maximilian. With this they placed a weapon in 
the hands of the liberals which has enabled the latter to domi- 
nate public sentiment to this day. If the Mexican is incurably 
religious, he is equally inflexible in his nationalism. Mexico 
for the Mexicans is his creed. To this he adheres to the last 
man. He will brook no outside interference. Louis Napoleon 
got his lesson. American statesmen of our day may well 
profit by it. 

It has seemed worth while to trace thus particularly the 
history of the triumph of liberal ideas, because of the direct 
bearing which the political development had on education in 
Mexico. For three hundred and fifty years that country had 
been committed to one educational ideal, viz. : the entrusting of 
the whole cause to the Church. Now she entered upon a new 
path. Henceforth the way was open for education by the 
State, and Church schools were to cease to have any public 
or official status.* 



*Siiice writing the above paragraph the writer has come upon a terse and comprehensive 
statement of this transition, by Dr. Edgar Ewing Brandon, of Miami University. In his 
report on Latin-American universities, issued as a bulletin (1912, No. 30) of the U. S. Bureau 
of Education, he says (p. 132, 133) : 

"Up to the time of their independence, Latin-American countries relied entirely on the 
Church for the establishment and maintenance of schools. The local priest had oversight of 
the primary school, if there was one. Religious orders maintained institutions of secondary 
grade, and the colonial universities all owed their foundation to the Church. In the struggle 
for independence the clergy very generally favored the colonies, for it was not Spain, the 
Catholic, against which they first rebelled, but against Spain, the subject of Napoleon, the 
man who had despoiled the Church and virtually imprisoned the Pope. The formation of 
the independent republic did not at first change the status of education. During the first 
decades of the new era the religious orders continued in charge of the schools, high and low, to 
the entire satisfaction of all concerned. The State willingly granted subsidies for their im- 
provement and extension. Bvit during the latter half of the nineteenth century conditions 
changed. The idea of secular education which should be free to all and required of all, devel- 
oped in Latin America, as it had slowly developed in Latin Europe. Education for the State, by 
the State, without reference to the ecclesiastical organization or to specific religious instruction, 
was abhorrent to the tenets of the Church, and it resisted to the full extent of its power; but 
in America, as in Europe, the State triumphed. Public secular primary schools were first 
established, then high schools; and the universities also were in time wholly secularized. This 
struggle long continued alienated and embittered the two powers, and the doctrine of complete 
separation of Church and State gained added force. It is a bit fantastic that the animosity 
should be reflected in school curricula, but such proved to be the outcome. Since the State 
had undertaken public instruction, it must perforce make its schools popular. The Church 
schools had remained classical and conservative. The State, in contrast, made its schools 
scientific and practical. Latin was the central, all-pervading feature of ecclesiastical educa- 
tion. In order to discredit this education, the study of Latin was decried. Latin was the 

59 



official language of the Church; to teach it in the secular school was almost like teaching an 
ecclesiastical subject. Again, if Latin were recognized as an important study, the state edu- 
cator could not compete with the clerical, since the best Latinists were the clergy themselves 
and the members of the religious teaching orders; and to admit into the secular teaching corps 
and to give Latin its pristine position in the role of education would be but to transform the 
new secular system into the old ecclesiastical school. The outcome of the struggle was the 
entire elimination of Latin from state-supported and subsidized schools; and when it was no 
longer required, or even 'credited,' for the baccalaureate — a state-conferred degree — it naturally 
disappeared from the private schools as well." 



60 



VII — LATER PHASES— SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 

Summary 

The civil wars of 1850-1867 were inimical to schools. An educational 
decree was issued by Maximilian in 1866. This was nullified by his down- 
fall. The dominance of French ideas resulted in the adoption of the 
essentials of the French system. The period from 1870 to 1910 was one of 
rapid development. The Federal District and the States alike worked for 
the promotion of schools. Lack of system and efficiency in municipalities 
caused the states to be more active. Primary schools received attention 
first of all. Illiteracy was reduced to 75 per cent or lower. Coahuila and 
Jalisco illustrate contrasted practices in school management. In the first 
the municipalities carry all the financial burden; in the second the State. 
In 1906 the Federal District showed a school population of 11 per cent. 
By 1910 the proportion in all the Republic was probably 6}/i per cent. A 
summary of the situation in primary education. No special place has been 
made in Mexico for the high school. Preparatory education may be looked 
on as preparation for college or for professional studies. It has there been 
given usually the latter meaning. The Institutos correspond to the French 
Lycees. They offer a few college studies. Some of them included in 
professional courses. Dr. Brandon quoted. Professional and technical 
education has been offered by some of the Institutos. Engineering is 
taught as well as law and medicine. Industrial schools have been established 
by most states. They are largely for outcast boys. Normal schools also 
are found generally under state control. They are related directly to the 
primary schools. Their courses cover high school studies, with a few 
added technical branches. They are attended chiefly by poor boys and 
girls, and have to supply board and lodging as well as free tuition. The 
University of Mexico was founded in 1553. It consisted of faculties of 
letters, law, medicine, and theology. The professional departments tended 
to absorb the others. It survived under the Republic till 1867, though with 
varying fortunes. The professional schools continued separately. Recently 
efforts have been made to revive it. Dr. Brandon quoted. Private schools 
divided into mission schools, Catholic schools, and special schools. A 
resume of the three classes. 

THE civil wars that were almost continuous from 1850 
to 1867 effectually prevented any formal and stable 
legislation in regard to schools, and thwarted and 
checked the zeal of the apostles of education who in various 
spheres nevertheless labored on in the great cause. In several 
of the states liberal governors sought, about 1859 and 1860, to 

61 



bring to the aid of republicanism effective school systems, and 
laws were elaborated to that end. But the besom of the 
French Intervention soon swept governments and schools 
together out of existence. In 1866 the Imperial Government of 
Maximilian issued a comprehensive, and apparently well- 
considered, decree for a system of public education covering 
the entire country. It was not carried into effect, however, as 
the government itself came to an abrupt end early the next 
year. An interesting detail is brought out in the history of 
secondary and professional education in Nuevo Leon, already 
referred to, edited by Professor Miguel Martinez. Touching 
upon this imperial law, one of the historians states that it 
provided for a division of the work of higher education between 
liceos and colegios literarios. So far as I have ascertained, this 
was the only effort ever made in Mexico to discriminate between 
the high school and the college. All other systems there, 
including that now in vogue, have provided only professional 
education above the high school. It is true that the escuela 
preparatoria, after the manner of the French lyc^es, often gives 
a more extended course of study than our high schools. The 
matter has in neither case been yet reduced to an exact rule. 

Mention has been made of the influence of French ideas in 
Mexico during the early years of the Republic. Since that 
time French intellectual standards have exerted a profound, 
perhaps we might safely say, a controlling influence, upon the 
thought of the Mexican people. By the beginning of the 
nineteenth century, a tendency was already manifest among 
them to go to France rather than to Spain for ideas. This 
was given a powerful impulse by the new nationalism which 
followed the achievement of independence, and by the ill- 
tempered refusal of Spain to accept the new political situation. 
Within a decade the young men who had occasion to go abroad 
for education were going to France, the French language and 
French fashions had become popular, and the literature of 
France, fiction and poetry, as well as philosophy, began that 
domination of Mexican thought which has continued to this 
day. It has been a question of congeniality, of intellectual 
temperament. And in view of this, nothing was more natural 

62 



than that the French type should be the model for the educa- 
tional system of Mexico.* 

The forty years from 1870 to 1910 were, for Mexico, a 
comparatively peaceful period. Under the constitution the 
states were sovereign in educational matters. The Federal 
Congress legislated for the capital city and the Federal District, 
as well as for three large territories. The educational schedule 
approved by it had a measure of recognition as setting a type 
to be imitated. But several of the states appear to have been 
quite as alert and progressive in educational matters as the 
Federal Government itself. During the long interval of quiet 
and of rapid material development under President Diaz, 
beginning especially with his second term in 1884, there was 
ample opportunity for perfecting educational plans, both in 
administrative and in financial provisions. The student of 
the educational history of that period — of which there is an 
abundance of documentary material — will be impressed with 
two or three outstanding features. He will note, for a time, a 
tendency that had already often shown itself — to reform and 
rearrange with great minuteness the systems, both as to the 
category and number of schools, and as to courses of study, 
text-books, hours of recitation, and routine in general. It was 
only after a good deal of further experimenting with these paper 
plans, that it came home to legislatures and governors alike 
that the really essential and fundamental elements of a school 
system are funds and teachers, and that until these demands 
are provided for, elaborate programs are of little service. 
Toward the end of the period, therefore, there came marked 
iactivity in the development of state normal schools. This was 
the second notable phase of the history. Another, perhaps 
even more transcendent, was the serious attempt to solve the 
financial problem. During all the long period of the country's 
poverty, due to the almost continuous prevalence of war, the 
matter of supporting schools had been perforce referred to the 
municipalities. The result was that the stronger cities and 



*The French system prevailed, however, only in the primary and professional schools. The 
Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, the pattern of the Institutos of the states since 1867, has been 
(at least till within these last years) a very peculiar institution. It is the work of the con- 
structive genius of Dr. Gabino Barreda, who embodied in that school the main ideas of the 
scientific classification as expressed by August Comte. — E. A. C. 

63 



towns managed, by one device or another, to keep alive their 
schools, no matter whether Centralists or Federalists, clericals 
or liberals, were in power, no matter whether these munici- 
palities constituted a sub-section of a state or of a department. 
But the villages and the poorer towns, poor in leadership, as 
well as in money, did nothing at all. They had no schools. 
The cloud of ignorance which darkened the country's sky when 
freedom came still brooded over them.* 

Thus it came about that the states found themselves com- 
pelled to intervene more directly in educational matters. The 
municipalities were not only prone to neglect the work, when 
pressed by poverty, but they were equally disposed when they 
undertook it to go their own gait, disregarding any provisions 
of the state law that did not suit them. It was easy for the 
State to order, for example, that all children from seven to 
fourteen years of age should attend school. Who was to see 
that the law was carried out? Equal liberties were taken with 
other provisions — length of term, courses of study, salaries 
of teachers, and the like. The result was a chaotic condition 
in many of the states which was the despair of educational 
leaders. The more vigorous intervention of the states in the 
educational affairs of the municipalities had thus its justifica- 
tion, not only in the supplementing of meager incomes, but also 
in the regularizing and inspection of the work done. State aid 
was extended on condition that state laws should be carried 
out; and systematic inspection, the school census, truant 
officers, and other machinery for enforcing those laws, came in 
due course to be installed. 

Following this general view of the modem period, we are 
ready for a more detailed exhibit. 



♦All the important measures were xisually undertaken in the various states as a result of 
federal initiative. This was especially the case during the last fifteen years of the Diaz regime. 
Reports of contrary character may be attributed to a feeling of "regionalism" or "provincial- 
ism," of which there is all too much evidence in Mexico. At the National Congress of Primary 
Education, held in Mexico City in 1910, Don Miguel F. Martinez showed that out of a total 
expenditure for the current year of 10,261,240 pesos in behalf of primary schools throughout 
the Republic, some 3,322,728 pesos represented the expenditure of the Federal Government 
for the primary schools in the Federal District only. This fact showed the primacy of the 
Federal Government in primary education. — E. A. C. 

64 



A— PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

1. Primary Schools. Elementary schools have properly 
received more attention than any other phase of public educa- 
tion. From the first the patriot leaders of independent Mexico 
have seen that the training of all the people in the rudiments 
of learning is essential to a democracy, and, being essential, is 
the duty and obligation of the State. Most of the repeated 
attempts at legislation, which our review of the century just 
closed has set before us, concerned themselves primarily with 
elementary education. The task was and is in Mexico a 
gigantic one. Only a beginning has been made. Somewhat 
pessimistic estimates, emanating from Federal sources, have 
even in recent years placed the illiteracy of the Mexican people 
as high as seventy-five or eighty per cent. This is probably 
too high. The charge, oft-repeated since the passing of the 
Diaz regime, that that somewhat autocratic executive and his 
associates were never really friendly to the cause of popular 
education, is vigorously repudiated by his friends. Senor 
Chavez assures the writer that there is abundant material to 
show that the efforts made by President Diaz and his supporters 
in behalf of education were numerous and far-reaching in effect. 
The history of education during the last ten years of the Diaz 
regime has never been written, but the real leaders in this 
field, among whom Senor Ch4vez particularly cites Don 
Miguel F. Martinez, have always been ready to acknowledge 
their indebtedness to the administrative agencies of President 
Diaz for moral and material assistance. 

Early in the present century the project for a centralized 
federal system of schools began to receive serious consideration, 
but its definite inauguration was constantly postponed. It 
was understood that President Diaz himself disapproved the 
idea. Since the passing of the Diaz regime, Sefior Chavez 
states, this idea has been revived, particularly in the matter of 
establishing a system of escuelas rudimentarids, for the teaching 
merely of the Spanish language, reading, writing, and arithmetic. 
Such a limited program can not be said to constitute a system 
of education. 

At this point it may be well to note the fact, which Pro- 
fessor Chavez considers of fundamental importance, that from 

65 



the very beginning of its independent existence, Mexico has 
given to public education full recognition in the presidential 
cabinet. Up to 1901 national educational affairs were under 
the control of the Secretaria de Justicia e Insiruccion Puhlica. 
By the Act of May 19 of that year there was created an indepen- 
dent branch of the cabinet, known as the Suhsecretaria de 
Instruccion Publicd y Bellas Artes. Owing to its rapid develop- 
ment it was made a full secretaryship by the law of May 16, 
1905. The recognition thus afforded the cause of education — 
a recognition that in point of honor surpasses that afforded by 
our own Government — is justified by the following figures, if 
from no other point of view. In 1895-96, five years before the 
creation of the separate department, there was expended 
through the Secretaria de Justicia e Instruccidn Puhlica and the 
Ayuntamiento de Mexico 1,225,248 pesos; in 1910-11, ten 
years after its creation, 6,970,056 pesos. (Fractional parts of 
a peso are in both cases omitted.) Of these sums the primary 
schools in the Federal District alone received, for the respective 
years, 414,675 pesos and 3,322,728 pesos. Including the 
Federal Districts, the total expended by the Secretaria de 
Instruccidn Publicd exceeded 4,039,000 pesos in the year 1910.* 

Despite this remarkable showing on the part of the federal 
organization, it is probable that the initiative, in primary 
education at least, will continue to be left to the several states. 
Even though the urgency of the situation following the present 
state of disorganization may force the central Government to 
extend its aid for the rehabilitation of the school systems, it 
is not probable that a centralized system of control will be 
adopted. That has been undertaken in some of the South 
American republics, but the evil effects of it in paralyzing 
local initiative and promoting paternalism have been patent. 
Professor Ross in his recent book on South America points out 
this as a mistaken policy. The relation of the central Govern- 
ment to that of the states may well be that which the better 
advised state governments sustain to the municipalities — one 
of cooperation, of supervision, inspection, and stimulating 
financial aid. Such ideas were expressed in a report presented 



♦Data furnished by E. A. C. from the official reports of Don Miguel F. Martinez and Dr. 
Luis E. Ruiz. 

66 



by Professor Chavez to the Minister of Public Instruction, 
Jose Vasconcelos, in January, 1915. 

It is true that there has been no rule in this matter of the 
relation of the state and municipality. Those who in the 
future organize the public schools of Mexico will find precedents 
of all kinds. An example is the work recently carried on in 
two important states, Coahuila and Jalisco. In Coahuila 
the municipalities carried the financial burden and enjoyed 
practical autonomy, the state intervening only in the matter of 
the selection of teachers and inspection. In Jalisco the situa- 
tion is reversed, the state providing everything except the 
housing for the schools. The rehabilitation that will certainly 
take place as soon as constitutional government is restored will 
doubtless follow the lines laid down by previous study and 
experience. The public school systems of the Mexican states 
are not destroyed, but simply in abeyance. The national 
educational conference of 1889 fixed more or less permanently 
the schedule of studies and the standards of administration. 
Afterwards there was progress, development, but no funda- 
mental change, until 1908.* 

The system thus generally adopted before that date seems 
open to criticism at one or two points. The attempt to finish 
primary training in six years, for example, either puts too heavy 
a strain on the average student, or leaves a gap between the 
grades and the secondary school. Proper training for high 
school students seems to require at least eight grades, meaning 
in the case of most pupils eight school years. 

In the second place, it is, of course, inevitable that the 
rural and village schools should be incomplete. Often they 
can not be organized to supply all the grades. It seems 
undesirable, however, to make this deficiency a definite and 
probably permanent condition by drawing in law a dividing 
line at the end of four years. The tendency at once shows 
itself to make the distinction thus introduced between "ele- 
mentary" and "superior" primary instruction one of quality, 



♦The last law of primary instruction enacted by the Federal Government in the Diaz period 
was issued August 13, 1908. It attempted to extend primary training to seven years, and gave 
an absolutely concrete character to the program of courses. It imdoubtedly represents a 
very considerable improvement on the standards fixed by the educational conference of 1889. 
The influence of American models is very apparent. — E. A. C. 

67 



not quantity; of kind, not degree. The outcome of this is to 
give the student of the lower school the impression that he 
really is not expected or encouraged to go on into the high school. 
This is a situation that lends itself to the old discrimination 
between classes. 

A report of the subordinate official in charge of primary 
instruction for the Federal District and territories giving 
statistics for the year 1906 was issued in two bulletins in 1907. 
Use is also here made of the report of the superintendent of 
primary instruction in the State of Coahuila for the same 
year, and a collection of statistics for the State of Jalisco for 
the year 1910. In 1906 there were in the Federal District 
367 public and 219 private schools, with a total enrollment 
of 61,400. This is 11 3^ per cent of the total population. In 
the District and territories the total number of public schools 
was 557, with 59,351 pupils and 2,371 teachers. Adding the 
private schools, the totals were, schools, 837; pupils, 75,865; 
teachers, 3,458, and expenditures for the year, 2,250,000 pesos. 
The same report gives the total number of primary schools for 
the entire Republic as 11,519; teachers, 19,131; pupils, 738,813 
— which is 5.42 per cent of the population. The corresponding 
percentage is given for France as 14; Germany 15; England 16; 
the United States 18. 

In Coahuila for the school year 1906-1907 there were 226 
primary public schools, with 499 teachers and a matriculation 
of 24,056 pupils. There were also 57 private schools with 
3,634 pupils. The total outlay from the public treasury was 
$351,658 (Mexican), of which all except the salaries and 
expenses of the state superintendent and inspectors was borne 
by the municipalities. The elaborate and interesting official 
report here referred to, shows the amount per student raised 
by the different municipalities, and the percentage of the total 
income of these cities and towns which was devoted to educa- 
tion. This percentage runs from 12.8, the lowest, to 91.2, the 
highest, averaging apparently about 40. The table is an 
impressive one for any inquirer who wishes some measure of 
the interest Mexicans take in the education of their children. 

In the State of Jalisco there were, in 1909, 1,095 schools, of 
which 577 were public schools and 518 private. It is rather 

68 



suggestive that 190 of the private schools are classed as clerical 
— "del clew." In these 1,095 schools were enrolled 102,060 
pupils. (The report does not state the total population, so 
as to exhibit the percentage.) In this state, as noted above, 
the expense of the entire primary school system is borne by 
the state government, the municipalities furnishing only the 
buildings and the office expenses of local education boards. 
The State's outlay for primary instruction in 1909-10 was 
$524,310.50 (Mexican). 

Sefior Chavez supplies the following data concerning primary 
schools in the Federal District, for 1910, the year which marked 
the high tide in Mexico's educational work. These statistics 
are obtained from the report of the Secretario de la Direccion 
General de Instruccion Primaria para el Distrito Federal, a sub- 
ordinate official of the Department of Public Instruction: 

Primary Public schools in the Federal District in 1910 436 

Primary Private schools in the Federal District in 1910 235 

Total '. 671 

Teachers in the public primary schools of the Federal District in 1910 2,559 
Teachers in the private primary schools of the Federal District in 

1910 973 

Total 3,532 

Pupils in the public primary schools of the Federal District in 1910 . . . 90,692 
Pupils in the private primary schools of the Federal District in 1910 . . 21,386 

Total 112,078 

Total expenditure in the public primary schools for the Federal 
District under the superintendence of the General Direc- 
tion of Primary Instruction $3,322,728.50 

As a special feature of the celebration of the first centennial 
of Mexican independence, it was proposed to hold a congress 
for all the primary teachers in Mexico. The Minister of 
Public Instruction accepted the proposal and the first Congreso 
Nacional de Instruccion Primaria assembled in Mexico City, 
September, 1910. At that meeting there were collected 
the most reliable data possible on primary, secondary, and 
normal instruction throughout the Republic. At the end of 
the sessions Don Miguel Martinez presented a general synthesis 

69 



of these statistics, from which Seiior Chavez presents the 
following facts: 

Total number of primary schools in the Republic in 1910 12,418 

Total number of teachers in the Republic in 1910 22,009 

Total number of pupils in the Republic in 1910 889,511 

Don Miguel Martinez also reached the conclusion that the 
percentage of enrollment in the primary schools of the Federal 
District, 16.93 per cent of the total population, surpassed that 
of any other portion of the Republic. While this can not be 
compared fairly with the percentage enrolled in any of the 
countries mentioned above, it ranks next to that of the United 
States. This fact refutes any charge of lack of interest in 
primary education on the part of "the associates of President 
Diaz." 

Summarizing our results as regards primary education, we 
may set down the following as the status just prior to the 
recent political disturbances: 

1. The leaders of the Mexican people, political and others, 
are fully committed to the cause of popular education. 

2. During the three decades of quiet, from 1880 to 1910, 
the school systems took form and had rapid development. 
There was so general an agreement as to type of school, courses 
of study, manner of administration, etc., that no radical 
change is likely to be introduced following the present revolu- 
tion. 

3. The schools generally follow the French rather than the 
American type,* although American influence has been felt 
in the Federal District. The primary course is comprised 
within six years or grades, four of these usually called "ele- 
mentary" and the two last "superior." 

4. By common agreement these schools are "free, compul- 
sory, and lay (or secular)." 

*The schools have certainly followed the French rather than the American type in many 
parts of the country; but in Jalapa the German influence was important through the teachings 
of the distinguished Professor Rebsamen; and in the Federal District the group of kinder- 
gartens created during the last ten years of the Diaz regime are rather of the type of the Ameri- 
can kindergarten, and the primary schools since the law of 1908 have introduced several 
distinctively American features. This law extended the primary course to seven years (as 
related in the preceding note) and pointed out the fundamental lines for prevocational and 
vocational training. — E. A. C. 

70 



5. They are sustained usually, as in our own country, by 
local municipalities, districts, etc., aided by the state and 
subject to state inspection and supervision. Federal funds 
have been used for schools in the Federal District more specially 
since 1896, which accounts for their exceptional progress. 

2. High Schools. 

Secondary education, the work of preparatory schools, 
means one thing when the "preparation" is for professional 
studies, and another when it is for colleges. In Mexico, and 
under the French system, there is really no distinctive place or 
institution corresponding to our high school. The French 
lyc^e, preparing for the university, grades rather higher, 
including a year or more of what we term college work. In 
Mexico the place of the lyc^e is taken by schools called institutos 
or escuelas preparatorias. These are central state institutions, 
which should correspond to our state colleges or universities, 
except that their grading is not as high. They are in grade of 
work really not far removed from our standard city high 
schools, and fulfill usually quite as much the function of high 
school for the capital city in which they are located as that 
of "college" for the entire state. Through lack of rigidity in 
entrance requirements and courses of study, many of them 
fail to reach the level of the corresponding French institutions. 

They do, to be sure, attempt some college studies. Their 
courses are a mixture. Many of the students are getting ready 
for professional work, and shape their studies accordingly. 
But, as has already been pointed out, the chief defect about 
the plan of bridging thus the gap between primary and technical 
studies is the fact that the primary courses cover only six 
years. If students enter the high school after only six years 
of grade work, the high school course must be graded down 
accordingly. In the Mexican system the attempt has been 
made to remedy this by extending the secondary course to 
six years. The professional courses are lengthened, also, and 
made to include college as well as technical branches, six years 
in law and medicine being at times demanded. 

How the problem will ultimately be solved can hardly be 
foretold. The simplest plan would seem to be to lengthen the 

71 



primary course. Despite the excellence of the French system, 
and the feeling that is gaining ground in the United States 
that in both high school and college we are demanding too much 
time for cultural studies before professional training begins, it 
is likely that American influence will be felt in the Mexican 
educational system of the future. Many teachers from that 
country will secure their higher training in our schools, and 
will, even unconsciously, adjust their work in some measure 
to the standards prevailing here. Either there will be a sep- 
arate development of the municipal and private high schools, 
or the primary schools will be made to include more grades, 
so that the institutos and allied private establishments may, like 
the French lyc^es, become a kind of junior college. The latter 
would seem to be the line of least resistance. 

On the general subject of preparatory education in Latin 
America, Dr. Brandon, whose admirable monograph on Latin- 
American universities has already been referred to, has a 
comprehensive paragraph (p. 22) : 

"Secondary education in Latin America usually covers six years and is 
based on an elementary school course of equal length. In a few countries 
the elementary course extends over seven years, and in some the secondary 
school is reduced to five. The two school periods never exceed twelve 
years, and in some nations comprise but eleven. It is not the province of 
this work to treat of secondary schools, but in order to define somewhat 
the university entrance requirements it may be said that the Latin- American 
high school offers less in mathematics and considerably less in laboratory 
science than the corresponding institution in North America,* but, on the 
other hand, it regularly includes such subjects as psychology, logic, political 
economy, and philosophy. In very few countries are the ancient classics 
taught, but everywhere much importance is given to modern languages, and 
at least two are included in every high school course that leads to the uni- 
versity. The secondary school curriculum is, therefore, comprehensive, 
and the student should enter the university possessing a reasonably broad 
mental vision. The age of the liceo graduate is about the same as that of 
the American boy when he finishes the high school. The Latin-American 
is perhaps superior in breadth of vision, cosmopolitan sympathy, power of 
expression, and argumentative ability, but, on the other hand, perhaps 
inferior in the powers of analysis and initiative and in the spirit of self- 
reliance." 



*The mathematical studies in the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in Mexico City have gen- 
erally reached from advanced arithmetic to analytical geometry and infinitesimal calculus. 
The teaching of the laboratory sciences was considerably improved during the last ten years 
of the Diaz rdgime, often following as standards the institutions of the United States and 
Germany. — E. A. C. 

72 



3. Professional and Technical Schools 

The faculties of jurisprudence and medicine were com- 
ponents of the early colonial universities. For a good while 
licenses for these professions could be secured only in the 
metropolitan university of Mexico City. Later, as population 
increased in the provinces, charters were issued — in view of the 
difficulties and expense of travel to the capital — for various 
provincial schools of law and medicine. At different periods 
in their history some of these faculties, along with those of 
Mexico City, acquired much fame because of their members 
who were men of real scholarship and skill in their professions. 
It is not important to the present purpose to enter upon a 
detailed study of these institutions, past or present. They 
will doubtless continue to be developed, as in the past, to meet 
the demands of a growing civilization. 

Schools of engineering have not had so long a history. 
Most of the states, however, have begun to offer courses in 
civil, mining, and hydrographic engineering among the studies 
of their institutos. In Mexico City a School of Mines was 
founded more than a century ago. It has now become the 
Escuela Nacional de Ingenieros; and has had an honorable 
record, having sent out many famous engineers and mining 
experts. Among them Senor Chavez mentions a most efficient 
group of recent geologists, including many of those hydrog- 
raphers who directed the recent drainage projects in the 
Valley of Mexico. 

In addition to their merely cultural work — to its subordina- 
tion, in fact — several of the state institutes have largely become 
technical schools. An illustration is the 1908 program of the 
Instituto Cientifico y lAterario of the State of San Luis Potosi. 
It lays down a preparatory course of five years, and offers 
besides professional studies for the following callings: law, 
notary public, medicine, pharmacy, midwifery, mining engineer- 
ing, topographical and hydrometric engineering, chemical 
assaying. The law course and the medical course each cover 
five years; the engineering coiirses four years; the others, three 
years. The document in question is merely the outline of 
courses, and gives no information as to the number of students 
taking them. The requirement seems to be that, with a few 

73 



specified exceptions, all who enter the professional courses 
must first complete the five years of preparatory work. The 
importance of mining and civil engineering in a country like 
Mexico is manifest. It has not escaped the attention of the 
legislatures there, and, no doubt, schools of engineering will 
continue to be provided to meet a wide and growing demand. 
Mention should be made here of the Escuela Nacional de 
Bellas Artes, and the Conservatorio Nacional de Music, which 
have had a long and noteworthy history in promoting archi- 
tecture, sculpture, painting, and music, in all of which the 
Mexican people exhibit noteworthy talent. 

4. Agricultural and Industrial Schools 

These are classed apart from the technical schools for a 
special reason. The Spanish hidalgo objected to manual labor 
as beneath his dignity. In an issue between going hungry and 
working, he would go hungry. This inherited pride has in 
some measure affected public sentiment in Mexico. Agri- 
culture has languished and mechanic arts have stagnated. 
About the only effort to remedy this has been the establish- 
ment in various states of industrial schools for boys, and the 
introduction of manual training in some of the primary schools. 
Almost nothing seems to have been done in agricultural educa- 
tion. In view of the richness of Mexico's soil, the demands 
of a population of fifteen millions of people, and the peculiar 
climatic conditions under which agriculture must be carried 
on, the need for scientific agricultural training is self-evident. 
The impoverishment of the country following the current 
wars will make some development of this type of education 
peculiarly opportune. Here, as nowhere else, Mexico should 
learn from the United States — though even in our own country 
only a beginning has been made. * 

The state industrial schools have usually been primary 
boarding-schools for boys. They are apt to be under military 
discipline, and are largely correctional. Most of the boys are 
waifs or delinquents, and they are occupied in such arts as 



♦The real reasons for the poverty of the work done in agricultural education have been the 
extreme scarcity of properly trained teachers, and the facility with which the soil produces 
all sorts of crops in many parts of the land without extra effort. The old prejudice against 
manual labor practically disappeared many years ago. — E. A. C. 

74 



help to make the institution self-sustaining, and at the same 
time fit the students themselves to become self-sustaining 
citizens. The writer has had considerable personal observation 
of the Escuela Industrial Militar of the State of San Luis 
Potosi, a school which has been in operation since the very 
early eighties. It is housed in the cloisters of an old Augustin- 
ian convent. Carpentering, blacksmithing, printing, litho- 
graphing, and other industries are taught by practice. The 
school does all of the state printing, lithographing, etc., and 
also outside job-work. It turns out handsome furniture and 
other woodwork. It is equipped with baths, playgrounds, 
machinery, etc., and maintains an excellent student orchestra. 
It is apparent that most of the other states have similar institu- 
tions, several of which have been in operation since 1867.* 

Manual training has been generally introduced in the 
public schools, but not greatly developed. It has been espe- 
cially insisted on in the schools for girls. The lack of suitably 
trained teachers has, naturally, been the chief obstacle to its 
development. Senor Chavez states that since 1867 Mexico 
City has had industrial schools for both boys and girls that are 
not correctional. The school for girls had an enrolment of 
more than a thousand during the last years of the Diaz regime. 
At the same time several primary schools in Mexico City gave 
some vocational training. 

5. Normal Schools 

Any view of the educational situation in Mexico, past or 
present, is sure to bring out in strong relief two of its perennial 
needs, namely, money and teachers. As concerns the public 
school system, these are fundamentally one, since the training 
of additional teachers has long been purely a question of more 
funds. 

The state normal schools, as a part of the public school 
system developed during the last four decades, concern them- 



*The State of Chihuahua had such a school under the progressive administration of Gov- 
ernor Ahumada. Professor Cox, who visited the school in 1898 and describes it in the San 
Antonio Express for August 26 of that year, was informed that this and other schools of the 
state had at first followed the example set by the mission schools maintained in Chihuahua by 
the Congregational Church; but when the state officials subsidized these state schools liberally, 
they soon surpassed their church models in material equipment and in number of students. — 
I. J. C. 

75 



selves only with the training of teachers for primary schools. 
The normal schools are thus properly looked upon as an integral 
part of the primary school system. Most of the states have 
now provided such institutions. Zacatecas and San Luis 
Potosl dispute between them the primacy in time. Vera 
Cruz was very early given a place of promise, through the work 
of Professor Enrique C. Rebsamen, who was later attached 
to the Department of Public Instruction. 

It will be recalled that once or twice during the period 
covered by the Lancasterian system, provision was made for a 
kind of normal training for teachers. The central governing 
board at Mexico City had a school there, and several of the 
state boards followed its example. Mention has already been 
made of the provisions for free scholarships in a Lancasterian 
normal school made by a very early law of the State of Jalisco. 

But official normal training did not begin to assume a 
systematic character till the time of the final inauguration of 
republican government following the French intervention. 
The more progressive states practically all began to make 
provision for the training of teachers in the early part of the 
seventh decade. It is needless to recount here the struggles 
through which the normal schools had to pass, along with 
every other department of the civil administration, by reason 
of the impoverishment of the country during a long period of 
warfare. Few of them made any considerable headway for a 
whole decade. In the eighties, however, began their reorganiza- 
tion and financial rehabilitation. By the time of the first 
national educational congress, in 1889, it was possible to reach 
a measure of agreement as to courses of study, methods of 
administration, etc. It is a matter of satisfaction that the 
states have so generally recognized their obligation to under- 
take this work. Though even yet a few of them have not 
organized normal schools, and though there is still among the 
schools organized a good deal of variation as to equipment in 
buildings, scholarship, and financial support, the system is 
fairly under way. It is not too much to say that it is the most 
vital element in the whole educational enterprise in Mexico. 
Sooner or later there should be one or more teachers' colleges, 
for the training of teachers for high school work, normal 

76 



professorships, etc. ; but the great task of preparing the young 
men and women who are to teach in the primary schools of 
the country must rest upon these state-supported normal 
schools. Some of the Protestant missions have very wisely 
devoted a part of their educational funds to normal training, 
especially for girls. This work has been made to conform to 
the official curriculum, and has been warmly welcomed by the 
state officials. Nowhere, as yet, have the states been able to 
train a sufficient number of teachers to meet the demands. 
And in no part of the Mexican educational system can outside 
help of a financial kind be introduced so easily and so fruit- 
fully as at this point. Additional scholarships in the state 
schools or in approved mission schools would supplement 
effectively the efforts of the states to meet the demands for 
teachers that press upon them from every side.* 

The course of studies in the state normal schools covers 
usually four years, with an added year of practice, or five years 
with a specified proportion of time throughout the course 
given to teaching in model or other schools, f It embraces 
mostly the same studies required in other secondary schools, 
with special topics added. It will be recalled that the primary 
schools stop with the sixth grade, leaving two years of grade 
work to be provided for in the high schools. In some institu- 
tions a distinction has been drawn between training for ele- 
mentary work and training for teaching the whole primary 
course, including the two years called "superior." A more 
general rule is to require all teachers to take the full course 
before receiving their title of "professor." This title is looked 
upon in Mexico as similar to that of lawyer or physician. It 
is at once a degree conferred by the school and a license ex- 
tended by the state. It corresponds to the "life certificate" 
sometimes granted in our country. The close co-ordination of 



*A college for the training of high school teachers was established in the Escuela Nacional 
de Altos Estudios of the National University of Mexico in 1913. Needless to say the disturbed 
condition since then has not permitted this brilliant and earnest beginning to be developed 
adequately. A few well-organized courses have been continued. — E. A. C. 

tSefior Chavez reports that the course of studies in the two federal normal schools of Mexico 
City has generally covered five years, not counting the practice teaching. The institution for 
men, visited by Professor Cox in 1911, was adequately housed and well equipped, with a 
faculty and student body apparently greatly interested in their work. — I. J. C. 

77 



the state with its normal schools is shown in the fact that the 
degree of the school is the state license to teach. 

It has generally been customary to put the president of the 
state normal at the head of whatever state organization there 
is for administering primary instruction. This usually includes 
a system of inspection, and sometimes also the right not only 
to license but to appoint teachers. The system is an excellent 
one when conducted by a progressive and efficient man. 
Otherwise — when made a matter of politics, for example — it 
is apt to degenerate into a travesty. 

The scholarships granted to students in the state normals, 
should, according to the judgment of those most familiar with 
conditions, barely cover the cost of board and lodging. The 
state usually furnishes the books and other supplies. Students 
and their families should be encouraged to provide clothes, 
pocket money, and other personal needs. It is true, usually, 
that the students come from the very poorest families. The 
well-to-do are not attracted to the profession of teaching: the 
pay is too small. They expect to enter more lucrative callings. 
Another reason is that the Church frowns upon these secular 
normal schools as the backbone of the whole "irreligious" 
public school system, which is anathema. This pressure on 
the conscience of the devout results in a measure of social 
ostracism, too; so that ultimately it is the very poor boys and 
girls, with nothing to lose, who brave all and go to the state 
normal schools. 

The strong sentiment in favor of separate schools for the 
sexes, which has long prevailed in Mexico, affects the plans for 
normal schools, too. Nearly all the older ones are rigidly 
divided. But in a good many places scarcity of funds has 
made it so difficult to provide two buildings and two sets of 
teachers, that mixed schools have been tried. These, apparent- 
ly to the surprise of all concerned, have been quite successful. 
Only girls of a good deal of character and force would front 
the prejudice and social pressure involved in attending such a 
school. Naturally, those of sufficient strength to do this have 
in the test shown also the poise and concentration necessary 
to take them creditably through a new and trying situation. 

78 



One of the first measures to follow the present disturbed con- 
ditions in Mexico, as soon as peace is again established, will be 
the rehabilitation of the normal schools. The people will 
clamor more than ever for teachers for their children, and 
they will refuse to be satisfied with makeshifts. The standards 
have already been raised, and the requirements to be met by 
one who assumes to teach are pretty generally known. It is 
to be hoped that henceforth in politics, as well as in pedagogy, 
the Mexican people will refuse to be satisfied with pretense and 
show. With the debilitated condition of the public treasury 
and the disorganization of civil administration, coupled with 
reduced production in agriculture, mining, and commerce, 
the states will face in this matter of normal training gigantic 
difficulties. Help rendered now will be help indeed. 

6. Universities 

The University of Mexico, and that of Lima, Peru, were 
authorized the same year, 1551. They are, therefore, the 
oldest institutions for higher education on the American 
continent. The school in Mexico has not had, however, a 
continuous history. Opened in 1553, two years after the royal 
authorization, it continued throughout the colonial period, 
and even survived the revolution of 1810-21. From the 
beginning it was occupied primarily with theology and juris- 
prudence, and therefore its faculty of letters became gradually 
a secondary matter. By the time that a separate national 
life for Mexico began, cultural studies were at a low ebb. 
The doctor's degree from the University of Mexico had become 
a matter of scoffing, and only the schools of law, medicine, and 
theology kept their prestige. Later, theology also gradually 
lost its hold, as the Church ceased to dominate in the Govern- 
ment; and only law and medicine remained. As these involved 
professional licenses, they became in time the football of politics, 
and thus at last the University fell upon hard lines. Once or 
twice it was suppressed, then revived. Finally, just following 
the French intervention, it was dissolved into its constituent 
parts. The school of medicine remained, and the school of 
law, and also the engineering school, but the University ceased 
to be. In 1910, on the occasion of the first centenary of national 
independence, provision was made for reviving it, but soon 

79 



afterward political dissensions once more began, the Govern- 
ment of Diaz fell, and the plans have since been in abeyance.* 

Several provincial universities, were, as we have seen, 
opened from time to time in New Spain. They survive now 
in the state Institutos and in theological seminaries conducted 
by the Catholic Church. 

On the general type of the Latin-American university, to 
which those of Mexico, of course, conformed, one can not do 
better than again to quote Dr. Brandon (page 12) : 

"It is needless to look for individuality in these institutions. All owe 
their origin to the same influence, and their organization was essentially 
uniform. The Church was the prime mover in their establishment, although 
influential laymen holding high political positions contributed notably to 
their foundation. The principal object of each university was to promote 
the cause of religion in the colonies by providing an educated clergy 
numerous enough to care for the spiritual welfare of the settlers and to 
further the work of evangelization among the natives. The central depart- 
ment of the institution was the faculty of letters and philosophy, through 
which all students must pass on their way to professional schools. The 
latter were exceedingly limited in the colonial university. There was a 
department of civil and canon law, but the former was overshadowed in 
the ecclesiastical organization of the institution, and had to await the era 
of national independence before coming to its own. The university usually 
contained a professorship of medicine, but prior to the nineteenth century 
it was the medicine of the medieval schoolmen, academic and empirical. 
The one professional school that flourished was the faculty of theology. 
It was for it that the university was created, and to it led all academic 
avenues. 

"Clerical in its origin and purpose, the colonial university was also 
clerical in its government. Theoretically the corporation enjoyed large 
autonomy, since it formulated its rules and regulations, chose its officers 
and selected professors for vacant chairs. But this autonomy was largely 
illusory. The professors were almost exclusively members of the priest- 



*In 1911, the function of the preparatory school corresponding to our commencement was 
a brilliant occasion, graced by the presence of the Rector, the Minister of Public Instruction, 
and by the then Acting President, Senor de la Barra. Original poems, orations, instrumental 
music, and even fencing bouts, appeared on the program. Each student received his diploma 
personally from the Acting President. It is interesting to note that among the number there 
was a full-blooded Tlaacalan Indian, who received more than the customary share of applause. 
In answer to an inquiry Professor Cox was informed that it had taken him two years longer 
than the customary term to get the diploma, but that in recognition of his final success, his 
companions were giving him what we should term "the glad hand." Professor Chavez states 
that under the dictatorship of Huerta the authority of the University was considerably in- 
creased, but that since then it has occupied an anomalous position, at one time under the 
immediate control of the Minister of Public Instruction and at another under that of the 
Rector, according to the influence of either. — I. J. C. 

80 



hood, and as such owed implicit obedience to the bishop, and, in addition, 
the election of officers and new professors required the confirmation of the 
prelate. University autonomy was, therefore, carefully circumscribed by 
church prerogative, and its equivocal form of government has been trans- 
mitted with little change to modern times, except that the State has taken 
the place of the Church. Several universities of the colonial era owe their 
foundation to one or another of the great religious orders. In these cases 
the order equipped, manned, and directed the school, subject, of course, 
to papal authority and to the immediate oversight of the bishop." * 

B — PRIVATE SCHOOLS 

Under this head are grouped not only the schools due to 
individual initiative, but also the two large classes of church 
schools, those maintained by the Catholic hierarchy and those 
established and carried on under the direction of Protestant 
mission boards. Concerning the latter a brief monograph has 
already been prepared. It seems to cover that subject with 
sufficient minuteness for our present purpose, and it is therefore 
inserted without change. 

1. Mission Schools 

Educational work from the first has been an important 
part of the propaganda of the various Protestant boards 
(mostly American) sustaining work in Mexico. These missions 
were established, most of them, in the seventies and early 
eighties. In those days there was only a beginning of public 
schools, and anything that the missionaries undertook in the 
way of schools was heartily welcomed. The people were 
pleased, and even the Government looked with favor on these 
undertakings. 

Mission schools have naturally fallen into three general 
groups: (1) the primary day schools, (2) the mixed primary 
and secondary schools, with both boarding and day pupils, the 
work sometimes advancing to include high school or preparatory 
grades, and (3) the special schools, usually normal and theo- 
logical. 

Of these groups the first gradually gave way, especially in 
the centers of population, before the advancing efficiency of 



♦There is a profound difference between the old University of Mexico and the new one, as 
shown by the spirit and breadth of teaching and by the point of view. It is the difference 
between scholasticism and science; between medieval times and the twentieth century. — 
E. A. C. 

81 



the public schools. It is still employed to great advantage, 
however, by many of the mission stations in the villages and 
smaller towns. The demoralization resulting from current 
revolutions will bring a renewed demand for this simple and 
effective agency. The cost is slight — the chapel or rented hall 
used for worship serving, also, as schoolroom, and a young 
Mexican teacher having entire charge. These schools reach 
children of the very poorest classes, the people who have no 
social standing to sacrifice, and result often in developing 
most promising material in most unexpected quarters. 

Boarding-schools for girls have been especially effective. 
Mexican families like to have their daughters in an institution 
where they are both taught and cared for. These girls' schools, 
of which almost every denomination sustains several in Mexico, 
have succeeded in reaching well-to-do families, as has no other 
mission agency. The teaching of English and of music, as 
well as the scientific and modern instruction in other branches, 
has commended them to intelligent and educated citizens. 
They have been distinctly the most attractive institutions of 
their class. The public schools for girls are generally looked 
upon as plebeian, and the Catholic schools were rather in- 
efficient. In only a few of the larger cities were there private 
seminaries. Thus it has come about that these schools have 
been well patronized by people able and willing to pay sub- 
stantial fees for tuition. The work ranged from the primary 
and even kindergarten upward, rarely extending above the 
eighth grade, and was projected on the American plan and, in 
many instances, carried on in English. 

Boarding-schools for boys have not been equally popular. 
With the same outlay they might have done practically as well. 
But the women's boards of the churches devoted their funds 
almost exclusively to girls' schools, and there was no similar 
organization to concern itself with schools for boys. Money 
for such institutions was not easy to get. It was difficult to 
make them anywhere near self-sustaining. Parents were more 
willing to let boys take their chances in the public schools. 
Nevertheless, not a few successful boys' schools were carried 
on — combined boarding and day-schools, usually. They 
graded up rather better, perhaps, than the schools for girls, as 

82 



boys consumed less time in music and other extras. Still, 
very few of these carried any appreciable number of boys 
through high school grades. 

The missionary institutions that did this high school or 
preparatory work, usually on the basis of the American plan 
of grading (though the PYench system is employed by the 
Mexican state schools), were for the most part those of the 
third class, the special schools for training preachers, teachers, 
and other workers. Two or three really excellent normal 
schools for girls were developed. They adopted usually the 
standard state program of studies, and their graduates became 
accepted and acceptable teachers in the public schools. Of 
these graduates there was never a tithe of the number 
demanded. 

The training schools for ministers and other workers — the 
sexes remaining rigidly separated through the whole course of 
schools — have usually been compromise institutions. They 
were designed to bring about prompt and practical results, and 
their courses of study were usually a mixture of preparatory, 
college, and theological branches, in such proportions as seemed 
to the managers to promise the best outcome. Some of them 
attempted formal seminary courses — usually, it must be 
allowed, on a rather flimsy foundation. In others emphasis 
was given primarily to the usual high school and early college 
subjects. 

Such were the Protestant educational institutions in 
Mexico. It is to be feared that the wars have pretty effectually 
wrecked them, especially the most substantial and prosperous 
class of them, the girls' boarding-schools. However, many of 
these own valuable properties, and doubtless they will be 
rapidly rehabilitated when peace returns. These Protestant 
educational plants, especially the boys' schools, have exercised 
an influence on the life of the people all out of proportion to 
the money and attention given them. The number of real 
leaders coming to the front during the present disturbances, 
purely through personal merit, who got their training in 
evangelical schools, is most surprising. It shows that had 
Mexico had for the past three decades one or two genuine 
colleges, their influence now would be decisive. Doubtless 

83 



the effects of the training of large numbers of girls are equally 
substantial and valuable, though not so readily appraised. 

2. Catholic Schools 

Even after the revolution of 1821, the Roman Catholic 
Church in Mexico continued, as we have seen, in a quasi- 
official relation to the Government. Such educational work as 
was undertaken for two or three decades was largely under its 
supervision, and the teachers were mostly monks, priests, and 
nuns. When at length the final separation between Church 
and State was achieved, it was accompanied by collisions so 
violent that much hostihty resulted. A profound distrust of 
the ecclesiastical leaders was engendered among the men who 
were, or became, members of the Government. The Church 
thus lost its place of intellectual leadership, and it has never 
regained it. Its case in the matter of education was made all 
the more diflBcult by the abolition of the religious orders. 
The monasteries and convents had been headquarters for the 
schools. They supplied both the teachers and the school- 
rooms. Deprived of them, the clergy were helpless. Practi- 
cally nothing was left to them but a few theological seminaries, 
and in the cities primary schools here and there, and an oc- 
casional academy, housed in private quarters, or sheltered in 
the cloisters of some old convent building that by private 
generosity or governmental connivance was still in their hands. 
Many of these primary schools, however, grew to considerable 
proportions, leading in some cases to the violation of the law 
in regard to persons under vows living in the same house. 
The theological schools and academies were usually slenderly 
patronized. 

During the later years of the administration of President 
Diaz the enforcement of the law against monastic orders was 
very lax. Troubles in Italy and Spain sent many monks and 
nuns to Mexico; and the Jesuits especially went vigorously to 
work again to build up schools of higher grade. The people 
are even yet disposed to place their children in the care of the 
Church. This is especially true of the wealthy families. 
Hence all these schools prospered, despite the fact that they 
were in a measure illegal. The expulsion from Mexico of 
foreign monks and nuns by the revolutionists of 1913-1915 has 

84 



caused much adverse comment. But it should be recalled 
that these men and women were in Mexico in direct con- 
travention of the law. Until the Catholic Church is prepared 
to develop lay teachers, and to adjust its educational work to 
the principle of complete separation from the State, and of 
absolute submission to law, it will continue to encounter 
stumbling-blocks in Mexico. 

3. Private Schools 

The demand for education in Mexico is so active that in 
almost all the cities of that country competent teachers have 
built up successful and lucrative private academies. Many of 
these have been aided by the good will of the Church authorities. 
Their claim on public attention has been partly in their select 
quality, partly in their emphasis on religion, but mostly in the 
superior ability of their teachers. Like private schools else- 
where, they have tended to rise and fall with the personality 
of the teachers who built them up. 

Another distinct class of schools has attained a considerable 
measure of success, especially in the larger cities — the com- 
mercial school or business "college." Like its counterpart 
among us, this school has offered a course combining theory 
and practice, and has reached a standard of efficiency that 
could be taken as a measure of the competence and con- 
scientiousness of the principal. Nearly all these schools 
emphasize — besides the usual bookkeeping, shorthand, and 
typewriting — the study of arithmetic and of English. As 
promising an easy road for young fellows into salaried positions, 
they have been well patronized. 



85 



VIII — ADDITIONAL TOPICS 
Summary 

Three topics are considered: revenues, supply of teachers, demand for 
education. The public income in Mexico has suffered from a defective 
system of taxation rather than from want of resources. The country is 
rich, and with a proper administration will be independent. There will 
be no lack of teachers. In spite of the low wages, boys and girls of the 
poor class better themselves financially by teaching, and improve their 
social standing, too. Candidates will be numerous enough, but nearly 
all will need financial help. The present revolution has been a great 
national awakener. The people feel their ignorance, and are amazed by 
it. They will clamor for schools for their children. 

1. Public Revenues 

It will not have escaped observation, throughout our study, 
that the severest handicap on education in Mexico has been lack 
of funds, although Mexico is a country rich in natural resources, 
and by no means over-populated. But from the beginning 
of its history it has been exploited. Unjust systems of taxation 
and dishonest administration together have deprived the 
public revenues of their just share of the country's products. 
By the same token inordinate measures of those products have 
flowed into private channels. 

In the very beginning a current form of favoritism to the 
colonists whom the King of Spain especially wished to reward, 
was to exempt their properties from taxation. Many large 
estates thus came to yield nothing to the public. In a brief 
period also the ecclesiastical orders and the various dioceses 
were among the large property-holders, their possessions, of 
course, being likewise exempt. In the same way mines just 
opened were favored, and farms that had not yet, according 
to their owners, become productive. Thus during all the 
colonial period the wealthy escaped, and all the burden of 
raising revenue fell upon the poor. Since the establishment of 
the Republic there has been no great improvement. To 
encourage new enterprises — factories, railways, and the like — 
many corporations have been relieved of taxation, for long 

86 



periods of time. The state legislatures have been usually 
under the control of the men who own the large landed estates. 
The consequence has been that it has been almost impossible 
to secure the passage of laws taxing land. Through one 
pretext or another — usually on the ground that the land is 
not yet sufficiently improved to produce a surplus — the large 
haciendas have been allowed to go practically free. Even 
stamp acts and other devices for producing internal revenue 
can be evaded if there is connivance between the local officers 
and the citizens. It is upon commerce, upon the small com- 
merce of the poor, especially, that the burden has usually fallen. 

The poor of Mexico are very poor. It is impossible to 
wring from them large amounts, no matter how they are taxed. 
Unless there is to be a successful attempt at making the wealth 
of the country contribute to the country's support, public 
service in education and elsewhere will be cramped in the 
future as it has been in the past. The recent wars have 
impoverished the whole country. Much property has been 
dissipated, a great deal taken out of the Republic. Recovery 
will be slow. Yet there is reason to believe that the people 
of Mexico have at last learned by experience. All signs point 
to a readjustment in this matter of taxation, once peace is 
re-established. 

There is every reason to expect that with such a readjust- 
ment, and with time given for the rehabilitation of industry, 
revenue for the needs of the people will be ample. In the 
interval, however, it is evident that outside financial help will 
be not only welcome, but most fruitful and efficient. 

2. The Supply of Public School Teachers 

It has already been brought out that in Mexico state normal 
schools must find their students among the poor. These 
schools have been subjected to a sort of double pressure. On 
one hand the Church influence has been thrown against them. 
Many of their teachers have been extreme liberals. It is 
difficult in that country to cherish such sentiments and remain 
in good standing as a Catholic. Often these teachers solve 
the problem by breaking with the Church entirely. They are 
thereupon ranked as skeptics, infidels, and even atheists, and 

87 



parents are warned against sending their sons and daughters 
to the schools in which such men teach. So heavy is the 
pressure that the young people who persist in going are virtually 
excommunicated. Naturally in that case they follow the 
example of their teachers, and become pronounced unbelievers. 
They do this not so much out of choice, as making a virtue of 
necessity. It is a necessity that seems peculiarly deplorable in 
the case of the young women. * 

On another side is the social pressure. People who feel 
themselves to be of the "upper class" do not like to associate 
with their inferiors. The state normal schools, like the public 
primary schools, have appealed especially to the poor, the 
people who are unable financially to take advantage of private 
institutions. This has made a sort of social atmosphere, the 
tendency of which is to restrict the attendance upon state 
normals to representatives of families that have virtually no 
social standing. Yet the instinctive attitude of the Mexican 
mind is one of respect for teachers. The calling is honored in 
and for itself. And even the slender income of a public school 
teacher is greater than the usual earnings of the men and women 
in the poor families from which these boys and girls come. It 
is clear, therefore, that despite the religious difficulty, the 
young women and young men of those families that are at the 
bottom of the social scale will continue to enter gladly upon the 
career of teaching. It not only satisfies their intellectual 
cravings for an education, but increases their income and, 
ultimately, improves their social position.! 

It would seem that this so-called lower class affords material 
as promising as any other in the Republic. Indeed, these boys 
and girls may be superior to those of the "better class." They 



♦This is not the case, however, in the schools of Mexico City. There is no general sentiment 
on the part of Catholics against the normal schools, although these schools are really non- 
sectarian. It must be added that the teachers, particularly in the Normal School for Girls, 
are almost invariably deeply respectful toward all the creeds, and that in recent years Catholic 
and Protestant girls have taken their studies in the Normal Schools of Mexico City in a mutual 
and constant relation of genuine cordiality. — E. A. C. 

tThis observation also is not strictly true of the schools in Mexico City. As a matter of 
fact there are in the private schools boys and girls of the richest families, with many of the 
middle class and a few of the poorer. On the contrary there are in the public schools of all 
grades, and particularly in the preparatory school and in the Normal School for Girls, rep- 
resentatives of all three classes. It is true, however, that the Normal School for Boys has 
practically only very poor students. — E. A. C. 

88 



possess more physical stamina, as a rule, a more vigorous will, 
and a more open mind. They have fewer prejudices of which 
to divest themselves, and have all to gain and nothing to 
lose by devoting themselves whole-heartedly to their chosen 
calling. Needless to add, the supply of them is inexhaustible. 
Mexico will never want for teachers, if only provision can be 
made for their proper training. 

3. The Demand for Education 

It may be assumed that Mexico is awake today as never 
before. The rapid shifting about of the men in the armies — 
followed by numerous women and children — has itself broken 
up provinciality and given large segments of Mexico's popula- 
tion their first conception of their own country, and of the 
world at large. Telegraphic communication has become a 
commonplace. It has brought the people of all parts of 
Mexico into touch with the whole Republic, and even with the 
world beyond. Newspapers have gone everywhere, loaded 
with startling and critical news. The man that could not read 
has felt himself set aside, ignored. He sees himself falling 
behind in the race. He has never thought of this matter that 
way before. He burns with longing and regret. He promises 
himself that his children shall never be humiliated and degraded 
as he has been. The school system of Mexico has lately been 
interrupted and held in abeyance, but the whole nation has 
been going to the school of experience. They have reached 
the hopeful stage of seeing and confessing their ignorance. 

There will now, therefore, be a new and mighty demand for 
education. The transition is as radical as that which took 
place in China when the old order of training was set aside in 
favor of "Western" learning. China exchanged one kind of 
education for another. Mexico will change want of education 
for education, contented ignorance for an imperious thirst for 
the things of the mind. She is the victim today of many ills 
of many kinds. At least she is convinced that she has been 
victimized chiefly because she is ignorant. The awakening is 
a tremendous one. She is getting ready for that eternal 
vigilance which is the price of liberty. For a hundred years 
she has tried somnolence and indifference. Now she will 

89 



watch, and to watch she must have her mind's eyes opened and 
trained. 

There have been, and are, many diagnosticians of Mexico's 
troubles, each with a remedy. The American people have of 
late shown much uneasiness under their sense of responsibility. 
The Monroe Doctrine has kept them awake at night. But 
they see that nearly all of the proposed ways of "intervening" 
would do harm and not good. Outsiders had better keep out 
of family jars. It is time that those who would really help 
the Mexican people should consider the matter of helping them 
to educate their children. That, if done in the right spirit — 
that is, without sectarianism or partisanship— is an "interven- 
tion" that Mexico will welcome. And it will do good and 
not harm. 



90 



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